Turkey as the Arena for Islamic Countries' Confrontation

The 13th summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation was held in Istanbul with the participation of heads of state from 33 countries and high-ranking officials from 58 Islamic countries from April 22 to 27, 2016. Before the arrival of the Islamic heads of state, foreign ministers held their official meetings. In the opening ceremony, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as the host, spoke generally about the situation, discussing the serious threat of extremism and terrorism, and in a veiled message, emphasized reliance on the principle of Islam rather than sect, addressing Iran and Saudi Arabia. As expected, various regional issues were discussed at this summit, including the fight against terrorism, extremism, the situation in Syria, Palestine, human rights, support for the development of Islamic countries, and other issues that could play a major role in strengthening the organization's role in regional and international cooperation. However, the topics of Palestine, Yemen, and Syria were not addressed in detail. Erdoğan's opening remarks focused on the serious threat of extremism and terrorism, and he emphasized the need for unity among Islamic countries against these threats. The summit's secretariat had previously announced that one of the important actions would be to approve a new ten-year strategic vision until 2025, which would include various issues mentioned, such as eradicating infectious diseases, respecting the rights of women, youth, children, and families in the Islamic world, higher education, attention to science and technology, and cultural exchange among member countries. It was natural that the security issues of volatile countries such as Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Palestine, Chad, Somalia, and the new crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh would also be raised, with Palestine, Syria, and Yemen being the most contentious issues among member states. While it was supposed that the issue of Yemen would be discussed at this conference, Saudi Arabia's political position would certainly come into question, as reports from international organizations and human rights watchdogs indicated that this country had repeatedly committed humanitarian atrocities in Yemen, and despite a ceasefire agreement between the Yemeni government and the Houthis, Saudi Arabia had violated the ceasefire multiple times in recent days. Meanwhile, King Salman of Saudi Arabia was recognized as an honorary citizen by Egyptian President Sisi before traveling to Istanbul, and an honorary doctorate was awarded to him by Cairo University. Additionally, important strategic areas in Egypt, namely Tiran and Sanafir, were ceded to Saudi Arabia, which had been disputed areas between Egypt and Israel for decades and had been under Egyptian control since the 1950s. However, these areas were recently transferred to Saudi Arabia through an agreement. The newspaper Al-Akhbar had previously reported that the agreement between the two countries' leaders was secret and that no details had been published. After his visit to Turkey, King Salman was warmly welcomed by Erdoğan and Turkish party and state officials, receiving a special state medal from Erdoğan, who also granted him honorary Turkish citizenship, similar to what was done for the Egyptian president. Turkish newspapers claimed that King Salman was recognized by Erdoğan as the most deserving king in the Middle East. It seems that the contradiction between the actions and words of some Islamic leaders reflects a kind of political, factional, and ideological rivalry that had been planned before the Islamic Cooperation Organization summit. In such a situation, where Turkey and Saudi Arabia discuss extremism while their support for extremist groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, Jabhat al-Sham, and ISIS in Syria and Iraq has been repeatedly raised, it was incomprehensible how they could reach a consensus on resolving the crises in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen with various countries involved, such as Iran, Lebanon, and Iraq. Before the summit of Islamic leaders began, the bell of discord rang among the foreign ministers of Islamic countries, with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif protesting the drafting of a four-point anti-Iranian plan by Saudi Arabia, reminding the Saudi foreign minister of the fate of Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi foreign minister. While it was expected that the Islamic leaders' conference in Istanbul would pass a resolution prioritizing political movements in international forums to support international efforts to alleviate regional political tensions, especially among Islamic countries, and to support the rights of the Palestinian people and the necessity of solidarity and unity among Islamic countries, these major disagreements and the differing political and practical viewpoints among Islamic leaders led to the stagnation and failure of the summit's resolutions. Iranian President Rouhani and his accompanying delegation left the conference hall in protest against Saudi Arabia's influence over the meeting and the creation of a divisive atmosphere, and they did not attend the closing ceremony. Following this, with protests from other countries such as Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Afghanistan, and several others, the final statement was not read, and thus the 13th summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation ended without results, politically turning into a major fiasco that could severely undermine the organization's standing among international institutions. The most significant event at this summit was the formation of the third meeting between the leaders of Turkey and Iran, as this meeting was in line with the previous meetings held in 2014 (Ankara) and April 2015, aiming to achieve beneficial outcomes. For this purpose, a delegation from Iran, composed of the president and a large number of ministers, attended this trip. However, the situation that arose and the decision for the Iranian president to return to Tehran on Friday afternoon indicates the stagnation of this summit between Iran and Turkey. The objectives pursued by Turkey and Iran in this meeting were of great importance to both countries. Previously, Iranian Minister of Communications and Technology, Vaezi, signed two banking and commercial agreements during his discussions with Turkey's Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Cüneyt Yılmaz, with the most important issue for Iran being the establishment of a SWIFT system for banking transactions. Additionally, security issues and the preservation of Syria's territorial integrity, as well as measures to determine the two countries' approach regarding the federalization of Kurdish regions in Syria and decision-making regarding regional terrorism, are among the main issues. The 13th summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation was also different from another perspective. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who uses every international summit as a platform to express his government's political stance and has made efforts to assert his positions in creating a safe zone along the Syrian-Turkish border, this time spoke of the unity of the Islamic world against terrorism, the self-reliance and self-confidence of Islamic countries in combating extremism, and the cohesion in solving countries' problems without allowing Western countries to take practical action. He also criticized the United Nations and the Security Council for lacking credibility and pointed out that Muslims have no representation in this council. Nevertheless, Turkey is currently facing a severe economic crisis and, alongside experiencing sanctions from Russia, is suffering from a decline in its trade volume with Iran. In 2015, the trade volume between the two countries dropped to $9.076 billion, reflecting a 20% decline compared to 2014. Perhaps the different and cautious approach towards Saudi Arabia and the signing of an agreement to establish a strategic coordination council between Turkey and Saudi Arabia have gained importance for Ankara from this perspective. However, it is clear that the political duality in Turkey's approach to Iran in the region and the failure to reassess the current regional policy and to think through necessary measures to prevent the emergence of a climate contrary to the spirit of the organization and contradictory to the slogan of unity among Islamic countries will lead to temporary alignments that will be detrimental to Turkey and its relations with Iran. Despite Ibrahim Kalin, spokesperson for the Turkish presidency, considering the presence of the Iranian president at this summit as a precursor to an important event, and perhaps this event was in line with Turkey's request in recent weeks regarding mediation between Tehran and Riyadh, the awarding of a national medal to the King of Saudi Arabia by Erdoğan and the existing differences in viewpoint and ideology between Ankara and Tehran regarding Syria and Yemen, especially the emergence of politically displeasing conditions from the perspective of Iranian politicians on the final day of the summit, make it unlikely that Turkey will succeed in achieving results in this regard in the future. It is believed that Turkey, after failing to achieve necessary results at the G20 summit in Antalya and the Istanbul security summit, sought to at least demonstrate its political and international superiority at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit, but the outcome was not very favorable.