Having referred to some news circulated on the effort of Qatar to mediate between Riyadh and Ankara and the possibility of holding a meeting between Saudi Arabia Crown Prince and the President of Turkey, Rassoul Alipour in an interview with site of Strategic Council on Foreign Relations noted:” in view of her position in the Western bloc, Turkey has made efforts within the past few years to employ the variable of its inclination towards the East to set its relations with the Western bloc in order to reduce the pressures exerted by the West.

Having stated that some attitudes in foreign policy of Turkey made heavier the economic burden of the country and numerous military war games imposed a heavy financial burden upon Turkey, he added:” for example, Turkish supports extended to Muslim Brotherhood, caused tension with Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt. In such a circumstance, it seems that Turkey needs to organize its economy through changing her regional inclination and to integrate with those countries it has had political challenges.

Erdogan’s Effort to Contain the Consequences of New Economic Model

Having pointed out to the new economic model introduced by the Turkish president based on decreasing the banks interest rate, Alipour continued:” Erdogan insists on proceeding with his plan despite all critiques raised by various opposition political parties and media. He has dismissed his opponents in the cabinet too. Turkish lira has sharply lost its value against other hard currencies within the past few months. Erdogan has justified this as saying the devaluation would help domestic producers and would lead to increase export, attracting hard currency and capital that would flourish the production.

He added:” in this process, cheap labor force will be provided to foreign investors which in turn would lead to increase in employment rate and the beginning of Turkey’s exit from unfavorable economic status; but the policy is certainly dangerous, it is not clear whether Turkey could attract foreign investors or not; because as main partners of Turkish economy, the Europeans have always tried to use their investments in the country as an instrument to contain and control Erdogan’s policies in the region and the world. Whenever he opposes their ideas and policies he has received imposition of economic pressures as their replies.

Having emphasized that the Western countries are not trustworthy partners for Turkey, the analyst on Turkey’s affairs said:” in such a circumstance and to confront this Turkey tries to enter into integration with those countries that has had political tension, as it happened in the course of the recent visit of UAE Crown Prince to Turkey, in his meeting with Erdogan a fund of $ 10 billion was allocated to invest in different sectors of Turkey.

In the meantime, Alipour reminded:” opponents in Turkey have strongly protested against Erdogan’s policy and have underscored that how could be possible to deal with a country like UAE that within the past recent years and according to the Turkish government has played an important role in 2016 coup attempt to topple the government?”.

Having referred to the miscalculations of Saudi Arabia and UAE in Yemen war, he continued to say:” in order to have an upper hand and retrieve their wrong policies, these countries see themselves needy to make alliance in the region and thus having relied on them to leave behind the crises ahead.

The expert on Turkey affairs then dealt with the role played by the Zionist regime in the region as well as its consequences and added:” Although Saudi Arabia has not publicly said anything about the normalization of relations with the Israeli regime but the latter plays an important role in its policies and political platforms. Moreover, Mohammad Bin Salman was very hopeful that through redressing his traditional prestige in the world public opinion, introduces himself as a reformist who is interested in practicing democracy but his repeated mistakes caused him lose his international prestige and became isolated in a way.

Alipour referred to the reports published by the U.S. intelligence organizations confirming the first role played by Bin Salman in the slaughtering of Jamal Khashoggi, and intensification of tensions and confrontations between Ankara and Riyadh followed by the manslaughter at the Saudi Arabian Consulate General in Istanbul and spelled out:” Erdogan took the maximum benefit from Khashoggi’s case to confront Bin Salman and defamed his international prestige to the level that Saudi Arabia privately boycotted Turkish made products”.

Turkey & Saudi Arabia Mutual Need       

Having stated that at present situation, Turkey needs to repair its political relations with regional countries in order to leave behind the disorganized present economic status, he said:” Likewise, in order to leave behind the political crises, and to retrieve the international prestige of Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia needs to integrate with regional countries such as Turkey. As carried by the media reports, one of Bin Salman’s demands to Erdogan for normalization of relations was to keep tight lips on Saudi Arabia’s crime to Khashoggi’s manslaughter at all circles.

The analyst on Turkey reminded that more than political and geopolitical issues, Erdogan is looking for attraction of capital, and he has declared a six month period to sort out economic issues. He continued:” Although some analysts compare his economic policy with that of China’s policy, but the opponents raise the consequences of such policies and have their own points of view. On this basis, we have witnessed a serious traffic of telephone conversations to prepare the ground for resumption of relations between Erdogan and Saudi as well as Emirati authorities within the past fortnight.

In the meantime, Alipour dealt with economic challenges of Saudi Arabia and said:” the tension between Turkey and Saudi Arabia is not unresolvable and political problems are not due to be sorted out principally, but having considered the economic and political achievements, they can shelf some of differences of opinion as Turkey and Egypt reduced their tensions”.

Having referred to the consequences of de-escalation of tension between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, he stated:” the two countries have common concerns in their relations with the U.S. Thus, they need to convergence in such a circumstance in order to temporarily shelf their previous tensions. However, the effect of such rapprochement between the two countries on international dossiers depends on the result of the two sides meetings as well as the amount of concessions given by both sides at the negotiating table. For both countries, their national interests are of importance. None of them follows stabled principles in their foreign policy bargaining.