Turkish expert: isolation shall be Turkey's fate because of its standing with Qatar  

A former Turkish diplomat has warned of the consequences of Ankara's standing beside Qatar in the Gulf crisis, pointing out that his country will find itself isolated like Doha because of the hostility was shown to Saudi Arabia and its allies.

The agency Assyrian International News Agency has published a report in this context, translated by the Riyadh Post, in which Aykan Erdemir, a former member of the Turkish parliament and a Senior Fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that "Turkey's standing with the Qatari side in the Gulf crisis has its Justifications and its political and economic reasons, but its consequences will be catastrophic for Ankara, just as Doha"

Erdemir points out that Turkey's decision to send Turkish troops to the Turkish military base under construction in Qatar and to supply food to Doha is a new indicator of the Turkish-Qatari consensus to support Muslim Brotherhood where Ankara and Doha support several regional factions belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt to Tunisia and Libya and even Syria and Palestine.

The former Turkish diplomat adds that Qatar and Turkey have continued to support the project of political Islam by supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in more than one country, although this has angered the Sunni bloc led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, accusing the Islamist movements of seeking to create chaos and threaten regional security.

The Turkish expert and researcher pointed out that the reason for the exacerbation of the Gulf crisis and the divergence of views between the Turkish-Qatari axis and the rest of the Arab countries is that Ankara and Doha maintaining close relations with Iran while Saudi Arabia and the Arab countries are trying to isolate Iran and Combating the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Personal relations are another factor that contributed to the Turkish-Qatari rapprochement and to developing Turkey's position on the Gulf crisis. The former member of the Turkish parliament points out that the suspected entry of Qatar into the media sector in Turkey and the exploitation of Erdogan's personal interests have contributed significantly to building this relationship. Erdemir also said that A mysterious Qatari company that in 2008 gained Turkey's second-largest media group in a controversial deal worth $ 1.1 billion in partnership with a Turkish holding company that Erdogan's son-in-law was its chief executive between 2007 and 2013.

Erdemir unveiled another controversial deal in 2015, when the Qatari Bein group, received Turkey's largest satellite television provider from  The Savings Deposit Insurance Fund controlled by Erdogan.

"The deal, worth 1.4 billion dollars, which overlooked the submissions of enthusiastic local buyers, was signed one day after the Qatari Emir met with Erdogan.", according to the Turkish diplomat.

The former member of the Turkish parliament also adds "In the same year, the Armed Forces Industry Committee in Qatar acquired 49 % of the Turkish military vehicle manufacturer owned by Erdogan's son-in-law, who now serves on the ruling party's executive committee.

For all these reasons, Turkey has chosen the Qatari side in the recent Gulf crisis, but the Turkish position, which has contributed to deepening the rift between the Gulf states, is likely to force Ankara to re-evaluate its already unstable relations with the Sunni bloc led by Saudi Arabia. Whereas Turkey is expected to become more isolated in the region, and increasingly rely on Doha for getting political and financial support.