Arab states worried over Turkey-Iran military partnership
Arab media outlets aired their views on Turkey’s upcoming “ambush elections”, while a report from Sky News Arabia hints at Arab states’ unease at signs that Turkey and Iran are stepping up military cooperation.
The Qatari media network Al Jazeera
asked a question that many Turks have been pondering since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced this month that surprise early presidential and parliamentary elections would take place on June 24: Will Erdoğan face former president Abdullah Gül?
The prospect of a Gül candidacy is a “surprise development” according to Al Jazeera, which “could change the balance of power in the coming election.”
Gül, a former president and founding member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), has long been seen by some in Turkey as a candidate with the potential to challenge Erdoğan due to his perceived popularity among conservative and religious voters who make up the incumbent’s voter base.
While figures from diverse opposition parties have discussed the possibility of uniting under a Gül candidacy, the former president has made no firm comment on the issue.
Writing for the pan-Arab daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Istanbul correspondent Ismail Jamal discussed at more length the speculation around influential AKP politicians’ stance on the upcoming elections.
“(Since the announcement of elections) attention has been drawn to the positions and directions of three of the most prominent leaders of the ruling Justice and Development Party, who have drifted away from the organisation in recent years as a result of differences with the party and Erdoğan directly,” wrote Jamal.
These three are Gül, former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, and Bülent Arınç, a founding member of the AKP who served as parliamentary speaker and a deputy prime minister.
While Gül’s position remains vague, Davutoğlu has declared his support for Erdoğan and desire to continue supporting the AKP.
Arınç’s meeting with Gül aroused suspicions that the pair were discussing an opposition platform to stand against Erdoğan. However, after a later meeting with the sitting president, Arınç declared his neutrality in the upcoming elections and said he would not involve himself in politics.
In any case, with opposition parties split on the prospect of a Gül candidacy, the possibility that the former president will run as an umbrella candidate appears to be low, wrote Jamal.
Egypt’s state-owned newspaper Al Ahram reported on the pre-emptive ban on Turkish electioneering among diaspora communities by European states.
Germany, Austria and the Netherlands have each announced a ban on all foreign political propaganda campaigns, wrote Ahram. The ban was announced in time for the Turkish election campaign, after the run up to the April 2017 constitutional referendum caused serious tensions in Turkey’s relations with these countries.
Al Ahram also reported on cooperation between the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Good Party, which it said had “caused a panic” in the ruling AKP government.
Fifteen CHP deputies
crossed over to the recently established centre-right Good Party to ensure that it would meet requirements to enter the presidential race, in spite of the short time frame.
Finally, during an aeronautical fair in the Turkish city of Antalya, an Iranian commander expressed his country’s aim to deliver the “most advanced” weaponry to client militias across the Middle East, Sky News Arabia, the Abu Dhabi-owned Sky News sister channel, wrote in
an editorial on Thursday.
Iranian Assistant Chief of Staff Brigadier General Mohamed Alawi told reporters during last week’s Eurasia Airshow of his satisfaction at the friendly relations and defence cooperation between Iran and Turkey.
"Iran's policy is always on the move to enhance cooperation with friendly countries, especially neighbouring countries, including Turkey," the general told the Iranian Fars News Agency.
"Within the framework of this cooperation, we can exchange our military products and technology and take advantage of these opportunities,” he said.
Sky News Arabia also quoted the general as saying that, if Turkey does not object, Iran plans to extend its “most technologically advanced” weapons to its allied militias, which are operating in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
“Iran's participation in the exhibition is not symbolic,” Sky News Arabia said.
“The country sponsoring armed militias in the region has set up a military product suite and sent the highest military officials to Ankara. Alawi was accompanied by the head of the Office of Strategic Studies and Research in the Air Force and the Iranian military attaché in Turkey,” it said.
The Abu Dhabi-based news site interpreted this as a sign of Turkey and Iran’s collaboration to strengthen their influence in the Middle East “at the expense of Arab peoples”, adding that Ankara’s accommodating stance towards Iran put lie to Erdoğan’s rhetorical support of the Syrian uprising against President Bashar Assad, who is firmly allied to Tehran.
Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates, along with Arab states Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain, have been vocal critics of Turkey’s support of Qatar, a Gulf state that the Arab quartet have been blockading since June 2017. The Arab states accuse Qatar and Turkey of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, an outlawed political Islamist group.
https://ahvalnews.com/turkey-elections/arab-states-worried-over-turkey-iran-military-partnership
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