Turkey and Pakistan consolidate alliance to exploit Islam

Nahla Abdel Moneim

Relations between Pakistan and Turkey have been expanding to witness major strategic developments over the past few years, as Ankara sees Islamabad and its regional neighbors as a haven to promote its pseudo-religious political project.

Consolidating the alliance

For its part, Pakistan is working to consolidate that alliance with Ankara, Tehran, Doha and Malaysia to create an international alignment of entities that support the model of political Islamism, contrary to the countries that oppose it. On August 6, Pakistani Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, made a hostile speech against Riyadh, threatening to withdraw from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

While this is a shift in Pakistani foreign policy towards the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it is a clear indication of the desirability among the other allies to consolidate the foundations of the coalition that they began to establish last year when Malaysia hosted a summit on Muslims that included only its government and the governments of Turkey, Qatar, Iran and Indonesia.

Fallout from Kuala Lumpur Summit

Although Pakistan was invited to attend the Kuala Lumpur Summit that was held on December 19, 2020, it apologized for not attending hours before it began, which means that the current threat is joining the Turkey-Iran alliance, while these countries may also be bent on a repeat of the summit.

Isolation

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suffers from political isolation within his geographical and Islamic surroundings, as his problems with the Gulf countries are numerous and he is fighting with his European neighbors with the desire of obtaining their economic wealth, in addition to his adoption of an ideological agenda aimed at geographic expansion and restoration of the old Ottoman legacy. Iran shares a similar attitude, as it is also suffering political isolation and has major problems with the Gulf states, while tense relations between it and Washington have raged to the fullest extent since Donald Trump came to power. Tehran has also adopted an expansionist ideology that relies on religious propaganda to restore its ancient empire.

Both countries are associated with political Islamist movements, which they use as military arms to achieve their ambitions in the countries of the region and to form parallel armies in their countries to support their regimes and pave the way for their expansion.

Thus, the new alliance must be understood in the context of the Turkish-Iranian attempt to get out of the international isolation imposed on them due to their aggressive behavior and to succeed in gaining support for their expansionist policies.

Common interests and ideological alliance

This alliance is based on common interests and religion as a variable for popular promotion, as countries have chosen to announce their alliance through a summit that they called Islamic, aiming to discuss the situation of Muslims around the world and the developments of pending issues.

Meanwhile, Pakistan is currently threatening to withdraw from the OIC, using religion as a reason, as it claims that Muslim countries should support it on the issue of Kashmir, which the country considers a religious dispute despite it being a political issue.

Islamabad believes that the OIC has not provided sufficient support for the Kashmir issue, so it is looking forward to Ankara playing a supportive role regarding this issue. Based on the fact that Erdogan claims to be the protector of Muslims around the world, he has also exploited the Kashmir issue on several occasions, claiming to support Pakistan’s right over the disputed region.

It is clear that the relations between Pakistan and Turkey are based on military support and arms trade between them. Islamabad, with its nuclear power and Ankara’s military aid, is working to build a strong naval fleet for Pakistan, paving the way for broader relations between the two countries.

Moreover, this emerging alliance in Asia will play an effective role in supporting the international Brotherhood, serving as a mouthpiece in Europe, Washington and North African countries, which carries with it a threat to other global powers and alliances.

Ottoman legacy

Commenting on this rapprochement, a study on the relations between Turkey and the Muslim-majority countries of Asia indicates that the Ottoman legacy of Erdogan’s imagination in conjunction with the spread of terrorist groups in the region makes religious propaganda easier to use. This in turn makes cooperating with the Turkish president accepted at the popular level in those countries, along with their political and strategic relations.