Though Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's just-concluded Gulf
tour failed to break the impasse there, it has at least helped protect
Turkey's interests in the region.
Erdogan on Monday ended his two-day whirlwind visit to Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia and Qatar, without achieving major breakthrough to end the
diplomatic row between Qatar and the Saudi-led quartet.
Erdogan's tour was the second diplomatic offensive launched by
Turkey, following a similar visit to the Gulf by Turkish Foreign
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu a month ago.
In fact, no one expected much from Erdogan's visit even before it
started, mainly because of Turkey's one-sided support to Qatar, a major
economic and security partner for Ankara.
But obviously, the need to soothe the worry of the Saudi-led alliance
of Arab countries and the desire to exert Turkey's influence as a
regional power have propelled Erdogan to go ahead with the visit.
ONE-SIDED STANCE HURTS TURKEY'S CREDIBILITY AS MEDIATOR
Even since the beginning of Gulf crisis on June 5 when the Saudi-led
bloc cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, Erdogan has never shied away from
voicing his public support to Doha, with which Ankara has extensive
economic and security relations.
At one point, the Turkish leader even criticized the blockade on
Qatar imposed by the Saudi-led bloc, which also includes the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt, as inhumane and against Islamic values.
Erdogan's government also took concrete steps to demonstrate its strong support to Doha in the wake of the crisis.
Turkey has delivered a large amount of aid of food and daily
necessities to Qatar, whose citizens are under pressure from the
sanctions by neighboring Arab countries.
Moreover, it has swiftly deployed a number of troops to its military
base in Qatar to help the latter to deal with any possible security
threat from its neighbors.
The Qatar-Turkey military cooperation has incensed the Saudi-led
bloc, which purportedly demanded for closure of the Turkish base in
Qatar, among the list of 13 demands put forward in late June.
Ankara's one-sided stance, though welcomed by Qatar, has damaged its
credibility as an impartial mediator and raised doubts from the
Saudi-led camp.
"Turkey has no chance of ending the conflict on its own, because it
has adopted a pro-Qatar stance at the beginning," said Faruk Logoglu, a
former diplomat from the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
He believed that Turkey, as a non-Arab country, should not take sides in an inter-Arab conflict.
ERDOGAN HAS TURKEY'S OWN INTERESTS TOP ON MIND
By launching mediation efforts, Erdogan apparently has Turkey's
strategic interests top on mind, as Ankara has vast economic and
strategic interests in the Gulf region.
"This visit is aimed for most at protecting Turkey's interest in this
important region by telling these countries that despite that Ankara
took sides with Qatar, it doesn't want hostile ties with others," said
Bora Bayraktar of the Kultur University in Istanbul.
On one hand, Turkey boasts close economic and security ties with
Qatar, not only because they are close economic partners, but also they
share common views on some regional issues.
Against the backdrop of its increasingly tense relations with the
U.S. and Europe, Turkey is relying more on its economic ties with rich
Gulf nations, such as Qatar.
Qatar is Turkey's 7th biggest investor with direct investments in
Turkey totaling 18 billion U.S. dollars, while the value of the projects
undertaken by Turkish companies in Qatar, which will host the 2022
World Cup, has reached about 8.5 billion U.S. dollars.
On another hand, both Turkey and Qatar are eager to become a major
player in the region, not to mention their common support to the Muslim
Brotherhood, outlawed by Egypt, and the Hamas Movement in Gaza Strip.
The Saudi-led bloc has demanded Doha end its support to these extremist
groups.
Despite its strong support to Qatar, Erdogan wants to avoid
antagonizing the powerful Saudi-led alliance at the same time. Before
heading for Kuwait on Sunday, he told reporters that the Gulf crisis
benefits no one both in political and economic terms.
Turkish government sources said Erdogan hoped to use this visit to
repair Ankara's ties with the Saudi-led Arab countries, which are
unhappy about Turkey's support to Doha.
Another factor that could motivate Erdogan to actively get involved
in mediating the Gulf crisis is perhaps Turkey's slowly drifting away
from the U.S. and Europe in foreign policy, especially after the failed
military coup last year.
Erdogan has been irked by the U.S. and Europe's criticism of his crackdown on political dissidents in the wake of the coup.
He is also displeased with Washington's refusal to extradite exiled
Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of being behind last
year's coup against Erdogan.
Notably, Erdogan's Gulf tour, by the first head of state of a
non-Gulf nation, came after the visits to the region by U.S. Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson, and foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany in the past weeks.
Through mediating the Gulf crisis, Erdogan may have tried to exert
Turkey's influence as a regional power, thus increasing his bargain chip
in dealing with the U.S. and Europe in future.