The latest skirmish between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates-Saudi Arabia bloc is over the media. In mid-April, Saudi Arabia announced it was blocking access to Turkish state-funded news agencies and several websites. Within a week, several Saudi and Emirati news outlets became inaccessible in Turkey.

The head of the Turkish-Arabic Media Association, Turan Kislakci, told Al-Monitor, “This was purely a reciprocal move.” Indeed, Turkey had no intention to censor Saudi-backed media outlets. Most of these outlets operate with the blessing and support of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. 

The latest tit for tat between Ankara and Riyadh is only the visible phase of Saudi Arabia and the UAE's cold war with Turkey since 2013. Tensions between Ankara and Riyadh have been intense, especially since Riyadh chose to ally closely with Abu Dhabi’s anti-Muslim Brotherhood policies in the region. Erdogan’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood is the root of the tensions. Ankara views the Emirati-Saudi bloc as the main culprit behind the coup to topple democratically elected Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. Erdogan is also convinced that Emiratis supported the botched coup to topple him in July 2016. 

Both sides accuse each other of harboring dissidents. Istanbul became a refugee for exiled members of the Muslim Brotherhood, while Abu Dhabi hosts exiled Palestinian leader Mohammed Dahlan. Dahlan is on Ankara’s most wanted list with a $1.7 million bounty for his alleged role in the 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan. While the Saudi- and UAE-led blockade of Qatar in 2017 forced Turkey to openly side with Doha, this was not Erdogan’s first preference.