Alwaght- The story of the Turkish military deployment to Qatar came back to media outlets after Ahmet Demirok, the Turkish ambassador to Qatar, has said Turkey started work to build a military base in Qatar to strengthen its presence in the Persian Gulf Arab state.
This comes while the conflict in West Asia region has witnessed intensification recently.
Earlier, Demirok had talked about the case in December 2015, a short time before the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit of Doha during which 15 new agreements were signed between the two countries.
One of the most important agreements was the deal to export gas from Qatar to Turkey which mostly was driven by dispute of Ankara and Moscow over downing of the Russian bomber by Turkey in Syria and cancellation of the visa-free deal between the two countries. Therefore, the Turkish-Qatari cooperation also was set to boost after a military collaboration agreement was signed by the Qatari Minister of State for Defense Khalid Bin Mohammad Al Attiyah and the Turkish Minister of National Defense Ismet Yilmaz. The agreement was about concentration of Turkish forces in Qatar which was reached after negotiations between the Prime Minister of Qatar Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani and the Former Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
The agreement was set in motion since last December by Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani after they agreed to see deployment of 3000 Turkish troops in addition to naval, air force and training units as well as Special Forces to Qatar. They were planned to be stationed in the military base in Qatar as Ankara’s first multi-function, cross-border military complex in the region. This was announced earlier by Turkey’s ambassador to Qatar Demirok.
The developments of Persian Gulf region and Qatari-Turkish ties could be brought in spotlight both from Turkish as well as a Qatari viewpoint. In Doha’s point of view the cooperation with Ankara is a visionary plan to protect the gas-rich sheikhdom in the post-US retreatment from the region period. This comes while Qatar is home to the largest US military base Al Udeid Airbase in the West Asia with over 10,000 military personnel. However, the priorities of Washington sensibly observed a shift from the West Asia region. This tendency started from Iraq after US pulled its forces out of the country and continued after the British military forces replaced the Americans in Bahrain. Therefore, it is likely that very soon the American forces retreat from Qatar too.
This comes while Doha has tried to play a role bigger than its size in the region. Thereby, it needs to engage the allied Turkish forces so that it could take on its “big brother” Saudi Arabia.
This comes while it appears that this Qatari move has brought forth a tangible backlash in the Persian Gulf region as the French Intelligence Online website had noted earlier that the UAE had blasted the Turkish-Qatari military deal. Regarding Saudi Arabia, it must be asserted that as long as the regional conflicts are under way, it is early to talk about Riyadh’s rifts with Doha and Ankara.
It is noteworthy that Ankara seeks to depict itself as leader of the Muslim world- a title seen by Saudi Arabia as exclusive to Riyadh.
From Turkish perspective, the objectives behind setting up the military base in Qatar should not only be associated with the Qatari gas or finding markets for the Turkish military foundations, rather, it should be interpreted as part of Ankara’s attempts for expanding Turkey’s influence in the Arab world, starting from Syria and Iraq and continuing to Somalia. Actually, Ankara is interested in setting up a military base in Somalia to get a military toehold also in the strategic Gulf of Aden. By doing so, Ankara intends to train 10,500 Somali troops.
The Turkish president takes cue from superpowers, particularly from the US, when wants to build military bases in other countries. It is not yet obvious why Erdogan does so but it is very likely that this move comes as Ankara seeks joining the club of industrial and powerful countries, or it wants to broaden its place in the NATO, or it is Erdogan’s dreams of establishing a new Ottoman Empire, restoring the grandeur of the old empire that have pushed him to move in this direction.
Whatever, Turkey by establishing its military base in the Persian Gulf state, seeks achieving its strategic goals, which one of them is to confront both Iran - that according to Ankara seeks seizing control of four Arab capitals of Damascus, Baghdad, Sana’a and Beirut- and Saudi Arabia, which holds dominance over a majority of Persian Gulf Arab states. However, this comes while Turkey has failed to accomplish its Ottomanian projects in Syria.
But there is a point that Turkey’s Erdogan has forgotten, or to which he has turned a blind eye: the US with its huge air and naval forces received a loss in front of the resistance of the Afghans. Ankara suffers messy conditions at home, and its problems doubled after encirclement of the ISIS terror group in Syria against the Turkish borders and so the terrorists find no road out of Syria but getting into Turkey’s territory. Let’s behold how Turkey would face the popular uprisings. Perhaps it is more appropriate for President Erdogan to stand by the region’s nations which have the last word on the present and future regional conflicts. But, the analysts suggest, this point was not made out by Erdogan from his experience of the Arab uprisings.
With a look at the political conditions of Qatar and Turkey- both support Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as well as anti-Syrian government armed groups- it is understood that Turkish military base in Qatar is not for Doha support, because first, the US has forces in Qatar and second, Turkey’s military strength does not allow for protection of Qatar, rather, the move comes to introduce new order to the region and so to realize the desire of Erdogan who wants to show off himself at any development across the region. Furthermore, some experts familiar with region's developments argue that Ahmet Davutoglu’s claims in Qatar University about the attempts of the Turkish military base for thwarting the common threats is simply a pretext aiming at covering up the political, economic and military goals of Turkey across the region.
In the future, Qatar would rise as a conflict scene between Doha and the Persian Gulf Arab states as well as Turkey and Riyadh. For years, Riyadh has considered the Persian Gulf states as it backyard, but now close interests with Turkey in Syria and Iraq make Riyadh disregard Ankara’s presence in Qatar.
Turkey would be the biggest loser of militarization of the region. From religious aspects, it divides the region between Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Ethnically, Ankara shares no roots with the Arabs. In politics, Erdogan’s experiences since 2011 indicated the Arab nations’ opposition to Erdogan’s neo-Ottomanian policy in the region.
