ANKARA —
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
took a big step out of international isolation Wednesday, paying his first
visit to Sunni rival Turkey since 2018.
اضافة اعلان
The talks in Ankara between the prince and Turkey’s
Recep Tayyip Erdogan come one month before US President Joe Biden visits Riyadh
for a regional summit. Those talks will focus on the energy crunch caused by
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
President Erdogan’s decision to revive ties with one
of his biggest rivals is driven in large part by economics and trade.
Turks’ living standards are imploding a year before
a general election that poses one of the biggest challenges of Erdogan’s
mercurial two-decade rule.
It is now drumming up investment and central bank
assistance from the very countries it opposed on ideological grounds in the
wake of the Arab Spring revolts.
‘Swallowing his pride’
“I think this is probably
one of the most significant visits to
Ankara by a foreign leader in almost a
decade,” said The Washington Institute’s Turkey specialist Soner Cagaptay.
“Erdogan is all about Erdogan. He’s all about
winning elections and I think he has decided to kind of swallow his pride.”
The Turkish leader personally welcomed the crown
prince at his presidential palace at a grand ceremony featuring parade horses
and a military honor guard.
They are scheduled to hold a private dinner but no
joint press conference.
Analysts believe Prince Mohammed will be looking to
see if he can win broader backing ahead of a possible new nuclear agreement
between world powers and the Saudis’ arch-enemy Iran.
“There is increased confidence (in Riyadh) that
Ankara could be more useful in the current geopolitical environment,” the
Eurasia Group said in a research note.
Ankara expects the mending of fences to help prop up
the Turkish economy at a crucial stage of Erdogan’s rule.
A Turkish official said the sides would discuss a
range of issues, including cooperation between banks and support for small and
medium-sized businesses.
Lack of trust
Erdogan’s unconventional economic approach has set off an inflationary
spiral that has seen consumer prices almost double in the past year.
Analysts believe
the resulting drop in Erdogan’s public approval and depletion of state reserves
mean the Turkish leader can ill afford to maintain his hostile stance toward
petrodollar-rich Gulf Arab states.
Turkey’s problems
with the Saudis began when Erdogan refused to accept Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood from power in Cairo in 2013.
The Saudis and
other Arab kingdoms viewed the brotherhood as an existential threat.
Those rivalries
intensified after Turkey tried to break the nearly four-year blockade the Saudis
and their allies had imposed on Qatar in 2017.
Analysts believe
that
Washington is watching this gradual return of regional calm with an
approving nod.
“Encouraged by the
US, this rapprochement is relaxing tensions and building diplomacy across the region,”
said the US-based
Middle East Institute’s Turkish scholar Gonul Tol.
But Tol questioned whether
Prince Mohammed was prepared to fully trust Erdogan.
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