Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues walking upon the razor’s edge with his tactic of continuous political gaslighting.
The world is moving forward, evolving, with America starting a new global geopolitical chapter and imposing new tariffs of up to 60 per cent on top of the existing ones on Chinese products entering the US. At the same time, Trump is strengthening his alliances in the Indo-Pacific Ocean. The new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is set to meet with his counterparts from India, Japan, and Australia, the well-known QUAD group, to address Beijing’s growing influence in Southeast Asia.
Regarding Europe-US relations, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa stated on their platforms on X, “We look forward to a positive cooperation with the new American government, based on our common values and interests. In a difficult world, Europe and the U.S. are stronger together.”
On the other hand, Turkey is following a policy of isolation and does not want to keep pace with the path set by Europe and America. The latest statements from the Turkish side mark the beginning of a new diplomatic chapter of war. “We do not pay attention to the dissonances coming from Europe. Europeans should first resolve their own issues and then attempt to impose order in our region. The era of those who roamed the region with the policy of division, partition, and administration is over. Anyone who says something, disrupts the game of the last 100 years. In our region, the winds of peace, brotherhood, and stability are blowing. The gates of a new era of prosperity and development are opening. From now on, the future of the region will be determined by the peoples of the region,” said Erdogan, hiding under the rug the fact that the peace and brotherhood he preaches do not exist, as the few free Turkish citizens who dare to oppose the regime’s false propaganda are being persecuted to death.
The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported that “Greece is violating treaties and militarizing the islands.” On the other hand, Turkey continues to discuss intensely about the Dodecanese and Cyprus, creating insecurity on the Greek side. Turkey does not want an open Mediterranean, a channel of economic communication between the East and America, but wants to have control over the Mediterranean and move things as it pleases. In this, of course, it seeks allies in other Islamist states such as Pakistan and Bangladesh, which it instrumentalizes and remembers only when it needs them. This is what it is currently trying to do with Bangladesh by creating stronger trade tariffs with it.
To reinforce its expansionist policy, Τurkey has created the Mavi Vatan theory. According to its main proponent, retired Admiral Cem Gürdeniz, Turkey’s concept of Mavi Vatan represents an idea, a symbol, and a doctrine. As an idea, Mavi Vatan encompasses Turkey’s maritime interests. As a symbol, Turkey’s eponymous military exercise in 2019 demonstrated Turkey’s claims to maritime jurisdiction and the capabilities of the Turkish Navy and Turkey’s naval capabilities. As a doctrine, Mavi Vatan guides the defense of Turkish sovereignty at sea, including control over Turkey’s continental shelf and exclusive economic zone (EEZ).Mavi Vatan has gained increasing importance both domestically and as an element of Turkey’s foreign policy, which in the past five years has become increasingly aggressive and securitized, with an anti-Western, anti-US perspective as the central organising principle.
It has long been known that Turkey creates and dissolves alliances as it sees fit at the moment, without always properly considering the long-term impact of its actions, which is evident from the game Turkey is currently playing with Bangladesh. In the meeting held on January 9 between the visiting Turkish Minister of Trade, Ömer Bolat, and the Chief Advisor of Bangladesh, Mohammad Yunus, Bangladesh requested Turkey to increase investments in Bangladesh. In response to Yunus’s request to reduce the trade deficit in their bilateral trade, Bolat emphasized that Turkey is committed to reducing its imports from India and other countries and instead starting to source similar products from Bangladesh. Yunus also highlighted the transfer of Turkish defense factories to Bangladesh, along with the transfer of technology structures.
Additionally, the Turkish Minister of Commerce added that the two countries could also diversify their cooperation beyond the textile industry into other sectors such as defense, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and agricultural machinery. He also proposed mutual cooperation between Turkish and Bangladeshi universities. Bangladesh’s exports to Ankara amounted to $581 million in 2023-24, while imports were approximately $424 million.
We are therefore observing Turkey’s effort to strengthen trade relations with Bangladesh while freezing its relations with India. It would be naive not to include as a component in the geopolitical bridge, that Turkey wants to build with Bangladesh the religion that unites the two countries, with Islam leading both Turkey and Bangladesh to wear blinders on social issues such as the protection of women in their countries and the protection of minorities.
Turkey wants to gain commercial and military control over the Bay of Bengal. Until recently, it was trying to build relations with India, but now that it sees India is not its pawn, it has set its sights on Bangladesh. India, with its foreign policy, has proven that it wants an open Indo-Pacific Ocean and wants to maintain close diplomatic relations with Europe and America. For this reason, it has particularly invested in strengthening relations with Greece, which is at the crossroads of Europe and the Mediterranean. It is no coincidence that Greece and India have excellent geopolitical relations.
On the other hand, Turkey does not want an open Indo-Pacific Ocean but is building Islamic alliances. At this moment, it has courted the Maldives in response to the freezing of its relations with India. Additionally, it is still awaiting a response to its application for membership in the BRICS (a coalition of ten countries that meet at annual summits: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, and Iran). Regarding Turkey’s accession to BRICS, Pakistan had been spreading information on social media for quite some time that India had blocked Turkey’s entry into BRICS. However, this is not true as other geopolitical reasons have delayed Turkey’s accession to BRICS, with the country currently being only a part of NATO.
ITurkey remains a deeply conservative country that struggles to keep pace with developments in Europe and America. Its recent overture towards Bangladesh in relation to India should only make us think, as it is a pattern of behaviour of the country; it uses allies whenever it needs them and when it no longer needs them, it simply moves on.
