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by Burak Bekdil • October 29,
2018 at 4:30 pm
- The new
U.S. leverage that emerged after the Saudi embarrassment is
the same leverage that the U.S. can now use to broker an
entente between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
- That
there may be a Saudi-Qatari rapprochement might be bad news
for Erdoğan. A future Saudi-Qatari deal would force Turkey
militarily out of the Gulf and force Erdoğan entirely to
recalibrate his quest for Turkish leadership in the Sunni ummah
(global community).
- Qatar's
distance from Erdoğan regarding the Khashoggi murder signals a
Qatari-Saudi entente. Qatar may well be breaking away from its
alliance with Turkey.
- This
will give the Saudis an upper hand in their rivalry with
Erdoğan in Sunni leadership of the ummah. If Erdoğan
loses Qatar to Saudi Arabia, he will be paying geostrategic
price as well as an economic one.
(Image
source: SpLoT/Jrockley/Wikimedia Commons)
A 21st century ideological kinship, based
on political support for Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood, has built a
strong bond between Turkey's elected leadership and Qatar's family
of sheiks, despite an unpleasant shared history a century earlier.
The Qataris, not knowing that a 21st
version of Islamism -- not yet born then -- fought the Ottomans to
gain their independence in 1915. This event ended the 44-year-long
Ottoman rule on the peninsula.
Independence, however, lasted for only about a year,
until 1916, when Qatar became a British protectorate, until 1971.
Today, hydrocarbon-rich Qatar, often referred to as a family-run
gas station, is the staunchest regional ally of President Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan's Turkey.
Both countries, Qatar and Turkey, pursue policies
that are strongly anti-Israel (Erdoğan once remarked that
"Zionism is a crime against humanity") and share policies
that are pro-Hamas and pro-Muslim Brotherhood.
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