Analysts have worried for months that the decline in Turkey’s regional and global position will heighten the frequency and intensity of diatribes by the country’s Islamist prime minister Recep Erdogan. In September Erodgan lambasted Jews for orchestrating the overthrow of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-linked president Mohammed Morsi, after Ankara had sought to place itself at the forefront of what it calculated would be a Brotherhood-driven Middle East. Bloomberg columnist Jeffrey Goldberg dubbed Erdogan “a semi-unhinged bigot” for the speech, and Georgetown foreign policy scholar Michael Koplow suggested that Turkey’s isolation had driven Erdogan’s “paranoia” to an “all-time high.”
Erdogan’s latest speech saw the Turkish leader blast both Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, whom Erdogan had once embraed as a brother, and Secretary of State John Kerry. The tone and content of the statement will not dampen concerns that Turkey’s regional slide is taking a toll on Erdogan’s political judgement. More the opposite:
Erdogan has been one of Assad’s harshest critics since Syria’s uprising erupted in March 2011. On Monday he also denounced US Secretary of State John Kerry for praising Syria’s compliance with the international community in relinquishing its chemical weapons. “You are a human being and me, too,” said Erdogan. “How can we appreciate the behavior of a person who killed 110,000 people, I ask you. The result of either chemical or other types of weapons is death. Then how can we appreciate this? I cannot imagine a person who appreciates this. I don’t think Mr. Kerry made such a statement. If he made it, he would be contradicting himself.”
Syria and Turkey have been locked in a war limited mostly, though certainly not always, to words. Erdogan was responding in part to recent statements made by Assad pointedly suggesting that Turkey would “pay dearly” for its support of rebel groups seeking the regime’s overthrow.
The lashout against Kerry, however, comes at a time when policies being pursued by the Erdogan government have already deeply complicated Turkey’s relations with the West. A missile deal with China has, in particular, threatened to do significant damage to Ankara’s relationship with NATO and the U.S.
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