A series of controversial political steps has left Turkey regionally isolated. As a result, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is rushing to find new "friends," Al-Monitor reported.
Recently, normalizing ties with Israel has come back to the Turkish agenda, and now Ankara is reaching out to Qatar.
"Snubbed by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Paris climate summit in early December, [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan flew directly to Doha for talks with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The sides signed an agreement for Turkey’s import of Qatari natural gas," the article read.
Commenting on the agreement, Erdogan brought up Qatar’s long-standing plans to enter the liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector in Turkey. He described the agreement as a "step forward" on the issue.
Doha has been investing in the Turkish media industry, the article added. Despite the fact that Al Jazeera could not launch a channel in Turkish, the company owns a news website. In addition, Sabah-ATV, one of the country’s biggest media groups, due to its unsettled debts, was purchased by Qatar in partnership with Turkey’s Calik Holding, on which Erdogan’s son-in-law Berat Albayrak, now energy minister, and his brother Serhat Albayrak served as senior executives. Later, Sabah-ATV was sold to businessmen close to Erdogan in a controversial transaction which was apart of the corruption and bribery scandal in 2013, the author wrote.
Turkish media has reported that the Qatari direct investments in Turkey stand at $6 billion and could reach $10 billion. The economic ties between Turkey and Qatar have developed as well as close personal relations between Qatar’s rulers and Erdogan, his family and inner circle.
The mysterious inflow of foreign investments during the years of Erdogan’s rule has been subject of speculations on the Qatari and Saudi support for Erdogan and his party. The sum has reached unprecedented $36 billion, with monthly inflows increasing during election time, the article read.
Nevertheless, the friendship between Qatar and Turkey did not prevent the Arab League from adopting a joint statement condemning the Turkish troop deployment near Mosul, in Iraq.
"The AKP government seems to have postponed its claim of 'neo-Ottoman and regional leadership' by joining the Saudi-led Islamic coalition against terrorism, while moving even closer to Qatar, a country with which Erdogan has had warm ties for years," the author concluded.
