There is certainly no shortage of writings on Turkey today regarding that country’s “drift” away from its Western orientation and floating towards pan-Islamism and Neo-Ottomanism, strengthening ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.
While Turkey itself has launched an “Asia Anew” policy, the outsized focus on this and other alleged signs of Turkey’s “drift from the West” distracts from the very palpable effects of its adventurism in the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey’s increasingly reckless foreign policy is on full display — from weaponizing refugees to extort the European Union to exporting mercenary Jihadist fighters to Libya.
Turkish Neo-Ottomanism focuses on a revival of a “greater Turkey” that renews a classical, civilizational model of the Ottoman Empire’s legacy anchored by economic, military, and political power.
The Pan-Islamist, Neo-Ottoman ideology has dangerous implications for the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East, and beyond. This misguided vision of pan-Islamism evokes a culturally hegemonic form of political Islam (as well as a form of militant Jihadism).
Since the rise of the AKP, Turkey has strengthened and solidified its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, hosting major international forums on the Islamic world in Istanbul. The Turkish state also fuels an international hub of religious education through its Imam Hatip schools.
On this picture, we see the TRT state news channel interviewing a jihadist fighter, one of the so-called “moderate rebels” Turkey has pumped into North-Syria, Afrin to be exactly. The map on the wall is telling you the story of Erdogan’s greatest wish.
