Turkey, the Arab World Is Just Not That into You
by Burak Bekdil • January 14, 2018 at 4:30 am
- Sunni Arabs do not wish to revisit their Ottoman colonial past. Still, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insists.
- A poll by Zogby found that 67% of Egyptians, 65% of Saudis, 59% of UAE citizens, and 70% of Iraqis had an unfavorable opinion of Turkey.
- For the Sunni Saudis, the Turks were allies only if they could be of use in fighting Shiite Iran or its proxies, such as the Iraqi government or the Syrian regime. Meanwhile, as Turkey, together with Qatar, kept on championing and giving logistical support to Hamas, an Iranian satellite, Saudi Arabia and Egypt distanced themselves from the Palestinian cause and consequently from Turkey.
Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) and Saudi Arabian King Salman bin
Abdulaziz in Antalya, Turkey, during a time of better Turkish-Saudi
relations, on November 15, 2015. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
He
runs around in a fake fire extinguisher's outfit, holding a silly hose
in his hands and knocking on neighbors' doors to put out the fire in
their homes. "Go away," his neighbors keep telling him. "There is no
fire here!" I am the person to put out that fire, he insists, as doors
keep shutting on his face. That was more or less how Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan's neo-Ottoman, pro-ummah (Islamic community), "Big
Brother" game has looked in the Middle East.
After
years of trial and failure Erdogan does not understand that his
services are not wanted in the Muslim neighborhood: The Iranians are too
Shiite to trust his Sunni Islamism; the (mostly Sunni) Kurds'
decades-long dispute with the Turks is more ethnic than religious; and
Sunni Arabs do not wish to revisit their Ottoman colonial past. Still,
Erdogan insists.
Continue Reading Articlehttps://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11730/turkey-arab-world
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