Mohammed Ben Zayed’s visit to Turkey.. What has Ankara offered to achieve this?

Over the past two years, Turkey has endeavored to overcome the differences caused by its policies in the Middle East following the events of the “Arab Spring”, when its approach changed from zero problems with neighboring countries to direct intervention in the affairs of regional countries, and the expansionist approach by positioning itself militarily in Syria and Libya, expanding the military presence in northern Iraq, and antagonizing the major regional powers.

The successive crises caused by the departure from the zero problems policy have prompted the Turkish regime to reconsider its foreign relations. It has started to make many concessions in order to get closer to the Arab countries, which have political and economic weight, most notably the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and is trying to open strong relations with them, in light of the Turkish losses that it has experienced over the past 10 years.

Turkish media reported that Abou Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed ben Zayed will visit Turkey for the first time in 10 years, during which he will meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss various issues and cooperation between the two countries.

In light of these efforts, ‏Turkey has accepted the conditions of the Arabs and handed over persons wanted by a number of countries. In order to affirm its serious intention to achieve this rapprochement, Turkey has expressed its full readiness to overthrow the Brotherhood and all its former interests in order to restore relations with the Emirates. The Turkish authorities have also asked a number of other persons wanted by the Justice and Brotherhood to leave its territory and have frozen the support of the Brotherhood channels.

Turkey has acceded to Arab demands for a stable Tripoli and Damascus, and has begun working to stop its support for extremists in Syria and Libya.

Turkish concessions and foreign policy changes are one of the fruits of the success of UAE and Egyptian diplomacy, building relations with Cyprus and Greece; this means that the next stage requires building economic relations and official visits.

Hamed Fares, a researcher specializing in Arab affairs, said that Ankara always seeks to make many concessions with all countries as a result of the loss of Ankara and its regime from sponsoring the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist group over the past period. This shows that the Turkish regime has become afraid and is trying in various ways to restore these relations with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and other countries that were in major crisis with Turkey.

Fares said that Turkey’s relations with the UAE will be conditional, adding that he expects the UAE to enter into relations with Turkey only if Turkey confirms its support for terrorism and interference in the affairs of various countries.

Mohammed al-Zulfa, a former Saudi parliamentarian, said Erdogan’s economic and political losses over the past decade made him re-open relations with Arab countries, especially the UAE and Saudi Arabia, as Turkey has suffered continued losses to the Turkish economy.

He added that the upcoming visit by Sheikh Mohammed Ben Zayed is a step to complete relations between Turkey and the UAE, especially in light of Erdogan’s call for this. He stressed that this visit will be a blow to all remnants of terrorist groups sponsored by Turkey, and I expect that this visit will discuss Turkey’s interventions in the affairs of states.

He added that Turkey is currently suffering from many internal crises, the main reason being that Turkey is now considering opening relations with Arab countries, especially the Quartet countries, due to Turkey’s diversity and its support for Qatar in the past and in light of Arab differences with Qatar.