The new wave of normalization in Turkey’s Middle East foreign policy
April 27, 2021 Share
In the past several weeks, news has been coming out of Ankara regularly about normalization in relations with countries with which Turkey has had problematic relationships for some time. Just this past week, it was reported that the Israeli minister of energy has been invited to the Antalya Diplomacy Forum. This would be the first such high-level visit since 2018, when yet another diplomatic crisis erupted between the two countries. At that time, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had criticized Israel for its treatment of demonstrators protesting the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Equally surprising was the announcement that the foreign ministers of Turkey and the UAE had exchanged a phone call. The two countries have been engaged in a bitter rivalry, especially since 2016, and proxy warfare. There has also been news about a possible normalization in ties
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At the end of the year, there was a Turkey in deep stages of cold-to-colder-war with the EU (in particular, with EU members Greece, Cyprus and France), Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, General Khalifa Haftar of Libya and the United States (over the S-400 dispute).
Not one of these state actors stepped back and appeased Erdoğan or changed policy in the face of Turkish hostilities.
In December, the Trump administration announced that the U.S. would sanction Turkey for its purchase of the Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missile system..
All that must have made Erdoğan tick. Apparently cornered, Erdoğan launched a new charm offensive in November. He said Turkey s future was in Europe quite a radical departure from his usual histrionics that Europe is Islamophobic, fascist, racist and Europeans are remnants of Nazis.
Sat, 10 Apr 2021 09:43 UTC
An image of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mahmoud Ezzat from October 2010Mahmoud Ezzat, a top leader in the Muslim Brotherhood, is believed to have incited violence following the ouster of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced 76-year-old Muslim Brotherhood leader Mahmoud Ezzat to life in prison on terrorism charges, according to the state-run
Al-Ahram newspaper. Ezzat was convicted on terrorism charges related to violence after the military ousted former Islamist-aligned Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
Ezzat was arrested in Cairo in August of last year, with police reportedly finding encrypted software in his apartment that he had used to communicate with other Brotherhood members both domestically and abroad. The authorities previously believed he had fled the country.