After his victory, Erdogan seeks to enhance Turkish-Emirati relations and abandon the Muslim Brotherhood
“Last month, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won his third term as Turkey’s president, lasting 20 years in power as he began mending ties with the Gulf states, especially the United Arab Emirates, on both the economic and political fronts.”
According to the U.S. website Al-Monitor, Turkey – the UAE’s sixth largest trade partner – and the UAE signed in March a $40 billion trade agreement over five years, which was ratified on May 31 after Erdogan’s re-election. This bilateral economic agreement is simply an expression of the close and foundational friendship between the leaders of the two countries, according to experts.
Turkish Decline
Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, an Emirati analyst and professor of political science, said the agreement is a reflection of UAE President Mohamed Bin Zayed’s (MBZ) approach to foreign policy, which values personal relations as a means to develop trust.
“Sheik Mohamed is expected to go to Ankara maybe next week or so, according to reports,” he said.
According to the U.S. website, Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed congratulated Erdogan on Twitter before the official announcement of the election results on May 28, but that personal relationship did not always exist between the two.
He continued: Turkish-Arab relations were generally strained between 2010 and 2020, at the beginning of the Arab Spring, under Erdogan and after the Arab Spring in 2011, Turkey was seen as a key supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria.
“It seems that the Erdogan administration has realized how wrong it is, especially after the group was ousted from power in Egypt in 2013, its activities in Egypt, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia banned, and its ouster from Tunisia in 2022, as well as in Sudan, and its failure to make any achievements in Libya or Yemen.”
UAE aid
Abdulla said the relationship between the UAE and Turkey went through several stages, culminating in the Arab Spring when Turkey was one of the UAE’s best trading partners and the two are still at an all-time low.
“Right after two massive earthquakes destroyed the Turks and their economy this year, the UAE has pledged to donate $100 million in relief aid to Turkey as well as Syria, which has been severely affected by the earthquakes.”
“The relationship between the UAE and Turkey has changed markedly, almost 180 degrees in the past two years, and we now see the two countries more closely aligned in political matters, with the new Turkey increasingly dropping its support for the Muslim Brotherhood,” Abdulkhaleq Abdulla said.
The expert said that this shift facilitates the growth of Abu Dhabi’s economic relations with Ankara, as the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries reached $18.9 billion in 2022, an increase of 40% over the previous year, according to Reuters.
