Sunday, October 02, 2011

Turkey's influence is on the wane, o people

"The Arab Spring has diminished Iran's ability to wield soft power in the region. Instead, the momentum has shifted to Turkey, which has not been shy about stealing pages from the Iranian playbook for appealing to the Arab street."  So untrue.  Turkey's lack of a tough response to Israel after the refusal of Israel to offer an apology has all but marginalized Turkey.  It has been seen as one of the region's states that is afraid of Israel.  It is fair to maintain that Turkey's influence has been confined to Muslim Brotherhood, and the latter did not appreciate Erdogan's remarks about secularism in Cairo.  So the story of Turkey's rise in the region is now very old.