Erdogan opens Turkey to Arab world

Tayyip Erdogan If the outcome of the parliamentary elections was up to the Arab masses, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would have won by a landslide. Erdogan's conservative Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) has won a third term in parliament in Sunday's elections in what many Turkish analysts believe will lead to the continuation of the country's strong relations with both the Arab and Muslim worlds.
Erdogan's successful efforts commenced eight years ago to diversify Turkey's foreign policy portfolio by opening up to the Arab countries, said Abdullah Bozkurt, columnist at Today's Zaman, Turkey's leading English-language newspaper.
Policy to continue
"That policy of opening up to the Arab world is going to continue," Bozkurt told Gulf News.
While the AKP won the elections, it failed to secure the needed majority in parliament to draft a new constitution without the consent of other parties.
Analysts say among the electorate the domestic policies are the key determining factor in elections, closely followed by foreign policy matters.
Ties with Israel
During the election campaign, some AKP candidates were "campaigning on foreign policy issues, including opening up to the Muslim world, relations with Israel and the rebuff of Erdogan to Israeli President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum in Davos. [Foreign policy] played a small role, but it was mentioned," Bozkurt added. "Foreign policy issues also brought in some points to the parties."
At the 2009 Davos WEF summit, Erdogan walked off the stage after an angry exchange with Peres during a panel discussion on Gaza vowing never to return to the annual meeting. That issue sharply raised the already growing popularity of the Turkish leader among the Arabs.
Flotilla
Last year, activist groups in Turkey organised a flotilla to the besieged Gaza Strip to break the Israeli blockade. But Israeli commandos raided the ships on May 31 as they approached Gaza. Nine Turks were killed in the assault, which further strained Turkish-Israeli relations.
Turkey-based groups are planning to send a second flotilla to Gaza Strip this month. Yesterday, Israel expressed the hope that Erdogan's government will block the second flotilla.
As Turkey is emerging as a regional power, its relations with the Arab countries have been steadily growing in the past few years. Erdogan has been invited to several activities in the region and was honoured for his stance vis-a-vis Muslim issues.
Mediating
Ankara has also been playing a mediating role in many other issues related to the region, including the Arab-Israeli conflict, especially between the Syrians and the Israelis. Recently, it began mediating in the unrest that is sweeping many Arab countries, such as Libya and Syria.
At the same time, Turkey, which is a Nato member, has been attempting to join the European Union.
‘Providing a balance'
Asked whether Turkey's eyes will be on the East or the West in the future, Turkish political professor Mehmet Seyfettin Erol told Gulf News, "It is very important for AKP to provide a balance" between the two.
"The new Turkey, or the new Ankara, believes that if Turkey has to be powerful in front of the West… it must develop a powerful relation with the Islamic and Arab worlds…. It is a rational approach," said Erol, a coordinator at the Eurasian Strategic Research Centre, ASAM.
Erol, who is also professor of international relations at Gazi University, stressed that since building strong bridges with the Arab world is a strategic goal for Ankara, stability in the Arab region and the larger Middle East is also a priority. That is why Turkey took the initiative and tried to mediate in different issues, ranging from the controversial Iranian nuclear programme to the revolution in Libya and the unrest in Syria.
However, Erdogan's popularity in both Syria and Libya suffered, because "Mr Erdogan, AKP and Turkey were not up to the expectations of the opposition in both Syria and Libya," according to Erol, Erdogan's popularity in the Arab world, "is still higher than in some areas of Turkey".