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Islamic Republic of Iran: Turkey’s Erdogan champions Islam only as a tool to further his own interests

Dec 5, 2020 9:00 am By Christine Douglass-Williams 6 Comments

Although Iran and Turkey have been friends of convenience because of the fact that they share mutual enemies, both Shia Iran and Sunni Turkey seek regional and ultimately global dominion. Consequently, it was only a matter of time before their ambitions collided, particularly also in light of the ancient and ongoing Sunni-Shia conflict.

“Anti-Turkish Statements In Iran – Part I: Iranian Daily: Erdogan Is Pursuing A Policy Of Religious, Ideological War, Hiding His Hostile Regional Policy Behind An Islamic Mask,” MEMRI, December 2, 2020:

This is the first in a series of reports reviewing the current tension in Iran’s relations with Turkey, which was recently give public expression in the Iranian media. The Iranian regime is alarmed by the expansionist ambitions of Turkey’s Sunni Islamist government, headed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which come at the expense of Shi’ite Islamist Iran and its resistance axis.

On November 10, 2020, the Iranian daily Sobh-e Emrooz addressed this issue in an article titled “How Far Do Turkey’s Ambitions Extend? Erdogan and the Dream of Ottoman Rule.” The article claims that Erdogan is making utilitarian use of his Islamic policy vis-à-vis the peoples of the region and especially the West and the European countries. Erdogan, it explains, champions Islam only as a tool to further his own interests, and has become an instigator of global and regional disorder who is waging, in the name of Islam, a religious and cultural war against the West. The daily adds that Erdogan collaborated with the European countries in promoting extremist Islamic ideology in the Middle East by supporting ISIS, and has sparked conflicts in Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh, Syria and elsewhere. He is pursuing a cynical policy aimed at creating regional, inter-religious and inter-cultural conflicts, so as to present himself as the defender of Islam in the Islamic world and the West and further his political and strategic objectives to the greatest possible extent.

“Southwest Asia [i.e., the Middle East] and the regional powers (Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and to some extent Pakistan), as well as the powers near them (Russia) and the powers outside the region (the U.S., France, etc.), have constantly been engaged in a very complicated political game aimed at displaying strength and achieving hegemony. Each of the powers in southwest Asia and North Africa has always depicted itself as a hegemonic superpower and used every means at its disposal to dominate the region. Turkey is one of the big powers in southwest Asia that has always striven to gain power and display it throughout the region and even beyond it. In the last two decades, the Turkish government, headed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has managed to make a show of force throughout western Asia and North Africa, as a superpower and a successful model of government by employing a very comprehensive and clever policy.

“Erdogan’s goal and dream of completely dominating southwest Asia and North Africa by 2023 began to take shape in the last decade, amid the emerging developments in the Arab world, [namely] the Arab Spring. Now they [this dream] has reached the point where the entire region is in crisis, and the flames of war have placed other major players in the area, especially Iran, before dangerous challenges.

“It is possible to take several perspectives on the Turkish government’s new tension-generating policy vis-à-vis the developments in Europe, and on [Turkey’s] political and diplomatic confrontation with European leaders, such as [French President] Emmanuel Macron, [a confrontation] that is waged in the name of Islam and serves Erdogan’s interests. The main element of Erdogan’s policy as Turkey’s senior policy-shaper is based on highlighting two aspects of Turkey’s national identity: its Islamic identity and its Turkish identity. The Islamic identity was focused upon and promoted in the Arab arena, whereas the Turkish identity was promoted among the Turkic-speaking countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Erdogan’s model of government was presented as a successful Islamic model and as an alternative to the Arab dictatorships in the region, especially those of Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, etc.

“Erdogan’s [efforts to] spread his model of government in southwest Asia and North Africa was relatively successful and was accepted by many people in this arena. As a result, it was also accepted by the shapers of international policy, such as the U.S. and the EU, as a modern Islamic model of government, and they supported it without reservation. The Islamic guise of Erdogan’s international policy was meant to deceive the people of the Islamic world, for in Turkey itself, many citizens, parties and ethnic groups are severely oppressed and discriminated against by Erdogan’s government. This Islamic guise was used to enlist some of the governments and peoples in the Arab world, and even in Pakistan, [in support of Turkey’s policy, and this was done] so successfully and effectively that Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar formed an alliance against [Iran’s] resistance axis.

“When this alliance between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar collapsed, Erdogan’s foreign policy and model of government lost a great deal of clout in the Arab world. The governments and peoples of the Arab world became aware of some of Turkey’s ambitions to reconquer the Arab countries of the [former] Ottoman Empire, and this removed the Islamic mask from Erdogan’s policy, [which is actually based on] ethnic and linguistic (Turkic) identity.

“One of the overt expressions of the Turkish government’s policy during the last decade, in the beginning of the Arab Spring, was its joining with, rapprochement and extensive cooperation with Western countries, especially the U.S. and the European powers (France, Germany and England), against the resistance axis and Iran’s interests in southwest Asia [the Middle East]. Turkey’s rapprochement and cooperation with the U.S. and the European powers, especially France, was such that Erdogan often openly called for NATO and the U.S. to stage harsh and widespread attacks in Syria and topple the legal Bashar Al-Assad government. [Erdogan also] placed all of Turkey’s means at the disposal of the Western-backed terror groups and organizations in Syria and Iraq.

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Filed Under: Featured, Iran, Sunni-Shi'ite Jihad, Turkey Tagged With: Ali Khamenei, Recep Tayyip Erdogan


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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Dec 5, 2020 at 9:49 am

    Well seen by Christine Douglass-Williams: ‘Erdogan champions Islam only as a tool to further his own interests’.

    However, Erdogan must be one of the most immune people to reality. Those living in the liberated lands of the former Ottoman Empire have no wish whatsoever to return to the Ottoman repression.

    The hatred towards Turkey from the Muslim world is considerable.

    Reply
  2. Infidel says

    Dec 5, 2020 at 12:42 pm

    Isn’t Iran and Turkey colluding rather prematurely, given that neither of them have vanquished the Arabs so far?

    In reality, Iran is pissed that Turkey has stolen all their sunni clients worldwide – Muslim Brotherhood, Boko Haram, Hamas, Pakistan, Qatar… The only thing that Iran has left are the shi’a Hizbullah and the Houthi militias, and they too are getting more unpopular w/ shi’a in their countries

    Maybe Iran could invade and annex Azerbaijan, claiming it as Iranian. It would be no more illegitimate than Azerbaijan’s conquest of Nagorno Karabakh, and it would be a challenge to Erdogan to stand up for his Turkic vassal

    Reply
    • Infidel says

      Dec 5, 2020 at 12:43 pm

      ‘Colluding’ should have been ‘colliding’

      Reply
  3. Islamaphone says

    Dec 5, 2020 at 2:34 pm

    Will Joe be sharp enough to take advantage of the situation, or will his handlers cost the USA big-time?

    Reply
  4. Mojdeh says

    Dec 5, 2020 at 2:59 pm

    This is first time in history that a Christian Armenian nation is lost to a Muslim nations. Both of them must go
    and are worst than Hitlers.
    Peace Ends Parliament-Government Phony War On Iran Nuclear Program

    A splat between Iran’s parliament (Majles) and the government of President Hassan Rouhani over the future of the nuclear program was resolved on Wednesday afternoon when the parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (Qalibaf) sent to Rouhani an amended version of a bill restricting cooperation with United Nations inspectors and expanding uranium enrichment.

    The bill is seen by some analysts abroad as a pre-planned ruse to put Iran in a stronger position to revive its 2005 nuclear deal with world powers. Ali Shirazi, an Iran expert, told Iran International TV on Wednesday that he believes the main aim of the bill is to put pressure on Europe. Iranian negotiators could scare foreign counterparts into believing that if they failed to agree with “moderates” led by Rouhani, they would have to deal with a tougher government after Iran’s presidential elections in June.

    The sham was clear when Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog required to endorse Majles legislation, sent back the draft bill in under a day, far quicker than the council usually spends assessing Majles legislation, which regularly takes around two weeks before any bill is returned with or without suggested corrections. Sham election will coming to Iran next year , we shall see who will wins deep state in Iran bring new person or may be USA strike Iran end of all things for mullahs? Shock and Owe 2?

    Reply
  5. Keith O says

    Dec 5, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    Iran’s dictators calling Turkey’s dictator “self interested”.
    Well that’s the pot calling the kettle black!

    Reply

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