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Ankara becomes more serious rival to Tehran

Türkiye Materials 16 August 2015 08:00 (UTC +04:00)
The failure of forming a coalition government is primarily connected with the country’s foreign policy conducted by the Justice and Development Party for 13 years
Ankara becomes more serious rival to Tehran

Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 16

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

The failure of forming a coalition government is primarily connected with the country's foreign policy conducted by the Justice and Development Party for 13 years.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is the founder of modern Turkey's foreign policy.

As soon as he said that the Justice and Development Party failed to form a government with the People's Republican Party, another opposition National Movement Party responded to the formation of a coalition with the Justice and Development Party.

The party leaders are expected to hold a meeting soon to form a coalition, namely, a temporary coalition government in the country.

Devlet Bahceli, National Movement Party leader, has today said that he is ready to agree on the formation of a coalition government if the Justice and Development Party accepts the conditions of the National Movement Party.

The National Movement Party's main condition is to isolate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from interfering in the politics.

It is not excluded that the National Movement Party and the Justice and Development Party will agree on the formation of a coalition government.

The expected formation of a coalition government in Turkey will lead to some changes in the domestic policy, as well as partial changes in the foreign policy of the country. But this will not affect the country's Middle East policy.

First, the coalition between the Justice and Development Party and the National Movement Party will affect Russia's energy projects in Turkey.

This concerns the Turkish Stream project.

This project is not only delayed but the sides can not even agree on the Turkish Stream final route.

It needs to be noted that earlier the representatives of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) said the consideration of Russian energy projects, and mainly the "Turkish Stream", will be one of the priorities in the event of forming a coalition government with the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

It should also be noted that there isn't likely to be any problems in the implementation of the project for the Akkuyu nuclear power plant.

As for the impact of creation of a coalition of AKP and MHP on the relations between Turkey and Armenia, it can be said Armenia in such a case will have to completely bury the hope for opening the Turkish-Armenian border.

A coalition of AKP and MHP is also likely to boost Turkey's Middle East policy. It is possible that Turkey will strengthen support for Turkomans in Iraq and Syria.

But there may also be serious problems in relations between Turkey and Iran.

The expected lifting of sanctions on Iran in late 2015 will anyway affect its relations with Turkey. And the improvement of relations with the West has made Iran more daring in the region.

Unlike Ankara, Tehran has been able to promote its interests in the region, especially in the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Yemen. Meanwhile, such countries as Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, has long been under the influence of Iran.

No secret that at the moment the disagreements between Ankara and Tehran are still at an early stage and Iran today wants to achieve a political isolation of Turkey in the region.

In case of creation of a coalition government of AKP and MHP and taking into account AKP's policy in the Middle East and MHP's stance towards Iran, it can be said Tehran will have more aggressive attitude towards Ankara's policy in the region.

Tehran today already perceives Ankara as a more serious rival in the region.

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Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu

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