Will Turkey join a Eurasian axis?
During his state visit to Iran, Turkish President Recep Erdoğan on Wednesday discussed Kurdish policy and energy with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani. Is Europe's distanced stance pushing Turkey into the arms of the major powers in the Middle East?
Just a broad-based foreign policy
There is no "Eurasian axis" in the East that Turkey could join, Daily Sabah explains:
“At a time when it is clear that Turkish foreign policy can no longer revolve around the United States and the European Union alone, the idea that the country can exclusively rely on Eurasian powers is, for lack of a better expression, out of touch with reality. It is not possible to ignore the differences of opinion between Russia and Iran to suggest that they form a monolithic axis. What ultimately matters most to Turkey is to maximize its national interests.”
Erdoğan turning from the West to the East
Turkey is turning away from the West and towards the East, Middle East expert Alberto Negri explains in Il Sole 24 Ore:
.“Putin and the ayatollahs have gone from being the enemies they once were for Turkey on the Syrian front to becoming the mainstays for Erdoğan's catastrophic foreign policy. ... With the fateful support of certain Western and Arab powers he has pulled off the feat of distancing Turkey from Europe and reintegrating it into the Middle East out of which Atatürk once led it. The real problem in the Middle East today is no longer Assad but Erdoğan, whom neither the Russians nor the Iranians trust because of his track record. Meanwhile he is relentlessly fuelling the tensions with Turkey's historical allies from Nato and the Europeans by swinging from West to East like a pendulum”