Erdoğan Is Not Only Drifting Away From The West, But Also Turning Against It

As Turkey's relations with the Western allies are breaking apart, it threatens the country's decades-long cooperations with the Western institutions. As part of his 'crisis politics', the Turkish President seems not to have any limits to challenge the EU, and in particular, Turkey's strongest trade partner, Germany. The politicians in Berlin now openly express frustration over what they regard as 'mafia language' and push for severe counter-measures, such as freezing of his and his family's assets abroad.

Following the row with Germany last month, Erdogan declared, with full pride, that the “era of submissive Turkey, bowing to Western demand, is over!” His passionate defiance against a coercive, meddlesome West betrays his deeply Islamist worldview and explains why he dismisses global outrage over his authoritarian policies as a Western plot to “defame” Turkey on the international stage. This premise underlies Erdogan’s prescribed foreign policy for the “new Turkey” that he seeks to institutionalize by 2023, the republic’s centenary. He already appears to be following Tehran’s playbook: Turkish prisons now hold American, German, British, French, and Italian citizens, and Ankara is reported to have offered swap deals for two of them. This makes remaining foreign nationals akin to political hostages.

In a seemingly rudderless world, Turkey's drifting apart bodes ill for the entire region, as well as the stability in the West; such is its geo-strategical weight in global power politics and balances in the Middle East.

In this gloomy but realistic analysis, another severe warning to the West has been issued, that if not already, Turkey is falling straight into the lap of those leaders who deliberately demolish the order of liberal democracies worldwide.