Turkey as a New Iran

Tony Badran:

To advance his brand, Erdogan has fallen back on a familiar tactic: addressing the region’s masses over the head of their governments, and rousing their emotions with calculated anti-Israel rhetoric […] Projecting the image of an “authentic” regional leader with street cred, as opposed to pro-American lackeys (as Erdogan portrayed former President Hosni Mubarak), was always part of the Turkish premier’s game and remains a critical component of his domestic sales pitch as an independent leader who marches to his own beat, not the Americans’

This is in line with analysis we’re reading in Arab newspapers nowadays. To me the real question is: Why shouldn’t Turkey do that? This is the formula that has proven again and again to work. As long as the Israelis are living by the sword and spurning the peace process, ambitious regional leaders will employ this tactic, and there’s a big hole to fill.

In a comment on a previous post, I argued that at least, for a change, the Turks are trying to export Attaturk’s secularism as the main ideological component of their push. In my book, that’s a good thing.