'Most powerful Muslim country in Middle East': Israeli analyst has an interesting observation

The 12-day Israel-Iran war has reset geopolitical equations in the Middle East as Tehran found itself cornered with its IRGC senior command wiped out and proxies weakened. While the war has weakened Iran, a recent development in the region has further repositioned power balances in the region, according to an Israeli analyst.

Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, a researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies and at the Moshe Dayan Centre, believes the Middle East now has a Muslim superpower: Turkey.

With the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) laying down its arms, marking a symbolic end to nearly 40 years of armed struggle, the Turkish state has emerged all-powerful, Yanarocak wrote in Hebrew media Maariv.

"With our own hands, we have made Turkey the most powerful Muslim country in the Middle East," Yanorocak said. "After Operation 'Am Kalavi', the state of Israel actually defeated Iran and weakened it very significantly, so we single-handedly turned Turkey into the most powerful Muslim country in the Middle East," the researcher said, adding "there are two strong countries in the region – Israel and Turkey".

"Therefore, I expect there to be a constant rivalry here, that this rivalry will continue to deepen," he said.

Erdogan's political move

Yanarocak believes that it is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's political manoeuvring that contributed to the PKK's surrender. "He already started some kind of process last year together with the Turkish nationalists, citing instability of the Middle East," the expert said, adding that Erdogan urged all communities to unite to strengthen Turkey against "external threats".

"He presented it as he was strengthening Turkey against threats from the region. It's actually a brilliant move by Erdogan because this way, he will ultimately be able to win Kurdish support and dismantle the opposition bloc against him," Yanarocak said.

An expert in Israel-Turkey relations, Yanarocak says the Kurdish party allied with secular Turks in both local and general elections. Winning their support will help Erdogan change the Constitution, which is necessary for him to gain a third term, he added.

"When the day comes, the secular Turkish opposition will be on one side while Erdogan and the Turkish and Kurdish nationalists will stand on the other side. This is called divide and rule," he said, adding that the US stance that it doesn't favour a Kurdish state in Syria and Turkey favoured Erdogan.

Middle East