Turkiye Turning As Erdogan Eyes Bigger Seat at the Muslim World Table

President Erdogan’s Justice and Development (AKP) Party, with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, naturally empathised with those like the late Mohammed Morsi’s party, and provided refuge to many conservative ideologues like the late Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. A North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) country, Turkiye’s metamorphosis from a NATO member-state to a leader of the Muslim world has reached new heights under Erdogan who, it is widely acknowledged, wanted to resuscitate the Ottoman caliphate in a new 21st century avatar.

In 2016, while commemorating the centenary of the Kut al-Amara victory (in modern Iraq), Erdogan stated that he rejects any understanding of history that takes 1919 as the start of the 1,000-year-old history of his nation and civilisation. “Whoever leaves out our last 200 years, even 600 years together with its victories and defeats, and jumps directly from old Turkish history to the Republic, is an enemy of our nation and state,” he stated. With Arab leaders from Iraq’s Kut region by his side, Erdogan noted that just a century ago, there was no difference between Bursa and Skopje, just as Baghdad, Mosul, Damascus, Aleppo, Salonica, Batum and Kardzhali didn’t have any difference.

However, political schemes aimed at drawing artificial borders according to oil resources and taking advantage of the Ottoman State’s pluralistic structure separated these lands from each other. In his speech, Erdogan also went on to say that there were no spiritual borders between the Arab world and Turkey, between Shia and Sunni sects.

This dream seems to be coming true now.