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Erdogan's Imperial Ambitions Invite Greater Instability
(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Dr. Dan Diker - While formally aligned with the West, the actions of Turkey and its neo-Ottoman president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, increasingly reflect a Western-legitimized rogue power: eliminationist anti-Israel rhetoric, the hosting of Muslim Brotherhood networks including Hamas, military adventurism, and economic competition. Turkey is positioning itself as the Sunni imperial competitor to the Shiite Islamic Republic in Tehran. Erdogan is an ambitious, Islamist actor seeking regional supremacy at the expense of Western interests. On June 6, Erdogan's Interior Minister, Mustafa Ciftci, declared that after Damascus, Aleppo, and Karabakh, "one day we will also see the liberation of Jerusalem" - a statement consistent with Erdogan's long-standing vision of Turkish influence beyond its territorial borders. Turkey maintains Russian air defense systems, occupies Northern Cyprus, sustains decades-old tensions with Greece, and hosts Islamist terror groups and other extremists - all of which undermine NATO alliance cohesion and moral and strategic principles. Turkey has long held potential as a regional leader and stabilizer as it demonstrated under the former Kemalist government and in its historical role as a Muslim-majority democracy exemplifying the separation of religion and state. But its current path - aligning with Islamist extremists and threatening the West's most dependable ally - benefits no one. Ignoring Ankara's ambitions invites greater instability. The writer is President of the Jerusalem Center.