Amid financial hardship, Erdogan looks to Qatar as 'rich daddy'

Al-Monitor ^ | December 29, 2015 | Zülfikar Doğan

[TigerLikesRooster]

Amid financial hardship, Erdogan looks to Qatar as 'rich daddy'

Zülfikar Doğan Posted December 29, 2015

A series of controversial steps in the region has left Turkey increasingly isolated in its neighborhood. As a result, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has gone on a hunt for new "friends." Normalizing ties with Israel is now back on the agenda. The second door the government has knocked on is Qatar's.

Yet, even Qatar's friendship could not stop the Arab League from adopting a joint statement last week condemning the Turkish troop deployment in Bashiqa, near Mosul, and urging Ankara to respect Iraq's territorial integrity. The deployment "is an assault on Iraqi sovereignty and a threat to Arab national security," the statement said, while Arab League deputy chief Ahmed Ben Heli added that the Turkish troops "increased tumult in the region."

Meanwhile, the AKP government seems to have postponed its claim of "neo-Ottoman and regional leadership" by joining the Saudi-led Islamic coalition against terrorism, while moving even closer to Qatar, a country with which Erdogan has had warm ties for years.

Snubbed by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Paris climate summit in early December, Erdogan flew directly to Doha for talks with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The sides signed an agreement for Turkey's import of Qatari natural gas. Commenting on the agreement, Erdogan said, "As you know, Qatar was planning to enter the liquefied natural gas [LNG] sector in Turkey. They were exploring whether they could invest in Turkey in the realm of LNG storage. Now a step forward has been taken on this issue."

[Timber Rattler]

So I guess shooting down that Russian bomber wasn’t such a good idea after all..

[2ndDivisionVet]

Turks are no more Arab than the Eskimos are.

[TigerLikesRooster]

They do have Islamist regime which is in cahoots with Gulf terror sponsors, especially Qatar. I get the feeling that it will be a while before Erdogan cabal might be booted out of power in Turkey. Between Erdogan and Arab oil sheiks, they were getting the Jihad ball rolling. Whatever their ultimate goals are, they have lots of common ground for the moment.