Turkey and Qatar: An Alliance Under the Saudi Sword by Burak Bekdil  •  October 30th  The new U.S. leverage that emerged after the Saudi embarrassment is the same leverage that the U.S. can now use to broker an entente between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. That there may be a Saudi-Qatari rapprochement might be bad news for Erdoğan. A future Saudi-Qatari deal would force Turkey militarily out of the Gulf and force Erdoğan entirely to recalibrate his quest for Turkish leadership in the Sunni ummah (global community). Qatar's distance from Erdoğan regarding the Khashoggi murder signals a Qatari-Saudi entente. Qatar may well be breaking away from its alliance with Turkey. This will give the Saudis an upper hand in their rivalry with Erdoğan in Sunni leadership of the ummah. If Erdoğan loses Qatar to Saudi Arabia, he will be paying geostrategic price as well as an economic one. (Image source: SpLoT/Jrockley/Wikimedia Commons) A 21st century ideological kinship, based on political support for Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood, has built a strong bond between Turkey's elected leadership and Qatar's family of sheiks, despite an unpleasant shared history a century earlier. The Qataris, not knowing that a 21st version of Islamism -- not yet born then -- fought the Ottomans to gain their independence in 1915. This event ended the 44-year-long Ottoman rule on the peninsula. Independence, however, lasted for only about a year, until 1916, when Qatar became a British protectorate, until 1971. Today, hydrocarbon-rich Qatar, often referred to as a family-run gas station, is the staunchest regional ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Turkey. Both countries, Qatar and Turkey, pursue policies that are strongly anti-Israel (Erdoğan once remarked that "Zionism is a crime against humanity") and share policies that are pro-Hamas and pro-Muslim Brotherhood. Continue Reading Article