Turkey and Qatar: like-minded nations with similar views on Syria, Libya and Muslim Brotherhood

On Sunday, while speaking to London-based Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and Lebanon-based Al-Mudun, Qatar’s foreign minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, expressed his country’s indebtedness towards Turkey, especially for its support during the Arab boycott. Qatar faced economic blockade from the the regional powers, including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Bahrain, over its ties with terror groups including Brotherhood, Hamas (Brotherhood’s Palestinians wing) ISIS and Al Qaeda.

Al Thani said, “Turkey has supported the people of Qatar in a very tough time when our neighbours acted against us and some other countries left us alone as a result of political pressure. Therefore, we will never forget this stance and we will side with them in the face of any difficulty."

Al Thani told reporters, “Turkey is one of the leading countries that we prioritize our relations. We are in a consensus about many issues that we share the same political opinion on. One of them is to assist the Syrian people."

He added "Turkey has taken responsibility regarding the Syrians near its borders and faced security issues due to the fall of stability in Syria. Qatar sides with Turkey on this issue."

Al Thani highlighted that Qatar supported de-escalation of conflict in Syria, by reaching a political solution with a peaceful transformation in Syria. He did not clarify what transformation was he talking about. Is he talking about the similar transformation which was brought in during Arab Spring?

Over the years, Doha and Ankara have mainly bond over their like-minded approach towards Syria, Libya and above all the Muslim Brotherhood. Doha and Ankara advocates bringing peace in Syria, Yemen and Libya by enforcing ‘Sharia law’ and making it the law of the land. To do so, Erdogan, and Al Thani, promoted terrorist incursions by funding Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS operations in the region. What ever the extremist Islamists factions tried to achieve in these countries was nowhere closer to peace. The countries, bearing the brunt of terrorist activities, presented an unprecedented scenario of chaos created when the very anti-government elements try to be part of the government to legitimise their actions.

Interesting, Qatar, which is officially a Wahhabi state and professes same form of Islam as Saudi Arabia, helps Brotherhood promote its political philosophy in the region by funding the organisation, yet the Qatari royals have limited its presence in its own territory. Al Thani family ensured Brotherhood posed no challenge to their absolute authority in Qatar. Thus, Qatar disbanded Brotherhood in its country in 1999.

Ankara and Doha who operated more like close cousins, grew closer during Arab Spring, Syrian conflict, Yemen crisis and now Libyan civil war. Arab Spring, a liberal wave, was powered by Qatar to oppose various conservative regimes in the region. Interestingly, the same liberal wave never entered the conservative corridors of Doha. But what marks the peak of palliness between Turkey and Qatar was their growing ties during Arab boycott, as both stood for a common cause to promote their influence in the region; the cause of controlling the region through extremist ideology.