Turkey Positions Itself as the Leader of Sunni Islam in the Mideast; Iranian Media Outlets Link Turkish President to Saudi Executions

Turkey, Which Sought Middle Ground, Enters Saudi-Iranian Dispute

January 8, 2016

New York Times - As the Middle East has descended into bitter sectarian conflict in recent years, Turkey has tried to remain above the fray, posing as an honest broker and peacemaker. Increasingly, though, it is being drawn into the conflict, and its preferred status as disinterested mediator is slowly becoming untenable.

Late Thursday, for example, Turkey said it had summoned the Iranian ambassador to register its objections to reports in Iran’s state-controlled news media linking a visit by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, late last month to the kingdom’s execution of a Shiite cleric.

The execution of the cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, among 47 men put to death on terrorism-related charges, and the subsequent sacking of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, ruptured relations between the Sunni monarchy in Saudi Arabia and Shiite-led Iran, setting the region on edge.

Turkey, a Sunni-majority country, has pursued an aggressive foreign policy in the Middle East in recent years in an effort to expand its influence and to position itself as the region’s leader of Sunni Islam. In doing so, it has sought to occupy a middle ground in the dispute between Saudi Arabia and Iran. As a number of Sunni-led countries in the region, including Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, sided with Saudi Arabia, Turkey sought to calm tensions by advocating dialogue and offering itself as a possible mediator.

On Friday, as Iranians throughout the country turned out to protest the sheikh’s execution, chanting “Death to Al Saud,” a reference to the Saudi royal family, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey warned that the tensions were “further enhancing antagonism in the region.” At the same time, a spokesman for the Turkish government, Numan Kurtulmus, pointedly noted that Turkey does not have the death penalty — a veiled criticism of Saudi Arabia.

Yet, the rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran is presenting a growing challenge.

While Ankara is trying to rebuild its relationship with Riyadh — fractured during the Arab Spring, when Turkey supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Saudi Arabia opposed it — it also seeks to maintain some semblance of a relationship with Iran, despite the two countries supporting opposing sides of the civil war in Syria. Turkey, like Saudi Arabia, has supported Sunni rebels seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, while Iran has been one of Mr. Assad’s chief supporters.

Turkey has gone to great lengths to compartmentalize its relationship with Iran, essentially walling off its rivalry over Syria while maintaining an important economic relationship. Turkey relies on Iran for natural gas imports, which have become more important in the wake of the breakdown in Ankara’s relations with Russia, another important energy supplier, over Turkey’s shooting down a Russian warplane in November.

As Turkey seeks to navigate the growing Saudi-Iranian dispute, it is also in the midst of a broader shift in its foreign policy, with events pulling it back to its traditional relationship with the West. The migration crisis has brought it closer to the European Union, which has sought Turkey’s help in stemming the flow of refugees from Syria. The dispute over the Russian plane has forced Turkey to rely more heavily on its NATO allies. And Ankara is also in negotiations to restore diplomatic relations with Israel, which broke down in 2010 after Israeli commandos stormed an aid ship bound for the Gaza Strip from Turkey.

Still, even as Mr. Davutoglu and Mr. Kurtulmus have been measured in their comments on the Saudi-Iranian rift, Mr. Erdogan has seemed to be more pro-Saudi Arabia in his remarks. He has called out Iran for what he sees as a double standard: condemning the execution of the cleric while giving support to Mr. Assad, whose military campaign and indiscriminate bombings have been blamed for the deaths of tens of thousands of Syrian civilians.

“The same people who keep silent during mass killings are now trying to stir up the world over the execution of one person,” Mr. Erdogan said this week. “You prove all kinds of aid is being sent there. To whom? To the murderer, Assad. You can never justify yourselves.”

Mr. Erdogan dismissed the criticism directed toward Saudi Arabia over the execution, calling it, “an internal legal matter.”

Despite Mr. Erdogan’s comments seeming to alienate Iran, some analysts said that Turkey could be well positioned to mediate the dispute.

“Ankara is tied to both countries in strategic ways, which makes it an ideal player for mediation,” said Erdem Aydin, an expert on Iran who works as a commentator for CNN Turk. “If Saudi Arabia is indispensable for Syria policy, then Iran is indispensable for its economy, in terms of natural gas imports, now especially, given the recent tension with Russia. Turkey in its capacity as a regional country that has historic and strategic ties to both countries can play a mediating role in this dispute.”

Other analysts, though, say that Tehran would never consider Turkey as a reliable interlocutor, given its recent moves in support of Saudi Arabia. For instance, Turkey has largely supported the Saudi-led coalition’s airstrikes in Yemen against rebels seen as supported by Iran, and Turkey has also agreed to join Saudi Arabia in a military alliance the kingdom recently announced.

These steps “strengthen Turkey’s image as a Sunni power pursuing a sectarian regional policy,” said Gonul Tol, the director of the Center for Turkish Studies at the Middle East Institute in Washington. “It is hard to play a constructive role in defusing the region’s sectarian tension with that image.”

 As Turkey has moved closer to Saudi Arabia, it has also joined the kingdom in voicing concerns about what it sees as Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region, including supporting Mr. Assad and funding proxy forces in the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shiite militias in Iraq and Houthi rebels in Yemen.

“Deeper ties with the Saudis is, in part, an attempt by Ankara to counterbalance Iran’s growing clout in the region, especially in Syria and Iraq,” Ms. Tol said. “But it is hardly a wise strategy if Turkey wants to play a constructive role in regional conflicts and defuse the sectarian tension.”

Turkey summons Iran envoy over media linking Saudi executions with Erdogan

January 7, 2016

Reuters - Turkey summoned Iran's ambassador on Thursday to demand a halt to Iranian media reports linking the execution of a Shi'ite cleric by Saudi Arabia with last week's visit to Riyadh by President Tayyip Erdogan.

"We strongly condemn the linking of our president's recent visit to Saudi Arabia to the executions sentenced in the country in stories published on media outlets linked to Iranian official bodies," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The statement also condemned remarks that directly accused President Erdogan, and said the publications aimed to create a negative image of him in the eyes of Iranian people.

A row has been raging for days between Shi'ite Muslim power Iran and the conservative Sunni kingdom since Saudi Arabia executed cleric Nimr al-Nimr, an opponent of the ruling dynasty who had demanded greater rights for the Shi'ite minority.

"It was stressed to the ambassador that the attacks on Saudi Arabian embassy and consulate in Tehran and Meshed were completely unacceptable and inexplicable," the statement read.

Last week, President Erdogan paid a two-day official visit to Saudi Arabia, where he met King Salman bin Abdul Aziz for talks focused on the Syrian crisis and energy cooperation between the two countries.