As Turkey’s Lira Tumbles, Erdoğan Pursues Neo-Ottoman Visions

The Turkish lira sank to a record low on October 22—a new blow for the Turkish economy, which has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic. The Islamist government led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is pursuing an increasingly daring neo-Ottoman policy throughout the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean, a push that is motivated in part by the need to help the economy bounce back.

Turkey has become the state leader of the regional Sunni Islamist bloc, whose most prominent other members are the Gulf state of Qatar and the Hamas terrorist group. The bloc also contains international networks of Muslim Brotherhood activists who cooperate with the coalition. A recent 100-page report from a London-based think tank concluded that Qatar and Turkey are “bankrolling and supporting an interlinked network of Muslim Brotherhood organizations across Europe.”

Turkey’s profile has been growing in the Palestinian arena too, as illustrated by the fact that for the first time, Istanbul hosted talks between bitter domestic rivals Hamas and Fatah, who had previously used Egypt as a mediator. Fatah’s willingness to send a delegation to Turkey for the talks indicates a potential willingness by Ramallah to give more influence to Ankara and the Islamist bloc it heads.

Συνέχεια ανάγνωσης εδώ

Πηγή: besacenter.org