Idlib and the collapse of Erdogan’s foreign policy
Gambling on Russia to secure results in Syria turns out to be Ankara’s biggest miscalculation
The implications of the Turkish-Russian fallout over Idlib go beyond Syria and represent a collapse of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist-driven approach to foreign policy.
Turkey is an isolated country today that has confrontational ties with the United States and Russia, as well as the Arab world and Europe. It is trying to ensure its vital security interests against this difficult backdrop.
But the few friends Ankara has left, such as Qatar, Pakistan or Azerbaijan, provide Turkey with no strategic value that could strengthen its hand against its adversaries.
The only option Erdogan has is to try and play the United States and Russia against each other, as he has been doing for some time now, but this approach seems to also have run its course.
