“Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s finest hour seems to be behind us” – Kommersant FM

Recep Tayyip Erdogan made harsh statements on the situation in the Middle East. The Turkish President initiated a large-scale conference to resolve the conflict, called for a ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners. Israel condemned the Turkish leader’s statements. Kommersant FM political commentator Dmitry Drize believes that Erdogan risks losing influence in the region.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan decided to oppose the Western world and called Hamas the Mujahideen who are defending their land. Israel, accordingly, is the aggressor. There was a chance for the two countries to improve relations, but apparently it won’t work. The Turkish President cancels his visit to the Jewish state. But nevertheless, he is ready to become the main mediator in establishing peace in the Middle East and the guarantor of Palestinian security.

There is such a popular theory that Erdogan strives for leadership in the Muslim world, but at the same time still intends to remain, to one degree or another, a respectable politician and build pragmatic relations with everyone who respects and understands him. Including with Israel, with which recently everything has been going quite well.

However, now the cooperation seems to be interrupted for some time.

Here it is necessary to recall that the Turkish leader tried for a very long time to be a mediator on Ukraine. However, the most that was achieved was a grain deal, which has now died out.

At the same time, the United States, with the support of its allies, is clearly building some new scheme around the Middle East. Its outlines are unclear, but it is noticeable that the process is active – Western leaders are visiting Israel more often and are traveling around the entire region.

In this regard, there are some reasons to assume that Arab countries may also be involved in all this. Naturally, we are primarily talking about moderate players. Actually, this should be beneficial to them first of all – the 21st century is in the yard, stop fighting already, many other opportunities are opening up.

As has been said many times, for President Joe Biden, the Middle East is not just a challenge, but a matter of almost life and death in political terms. Taking into account the Afghan failure, it is simply impossible to lose.

Moreover, everything is ambiguous with Ukraine. This is a nightmare for the entire Democratic Party, and for America by and large. And then Donald Trump and his associates put a spoke in the wheels. Therefore we have to act.

But Erdogan was not invited to this general gathering. There seems to be no particular need for his services, which, naturally, is very unpleasant. He seemed to have won the elections, retained power – it seemed that this was it, leadership – but no. You need to rebuild your country after the earthquake and the economy is still limping.

Or maybe it was not worth going to the elections, to give way to the young people. However, this is a matter of Turkey’s internal politics. Be that as it may, the Western world is invited to take into account the opinion of its Turkish partners and show them respect. However, it seems that Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s finest hour is already behind him.

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