JEDDAH — In an interesting opinion piece on the Turkey-Qatar relations, a pro-government Turkish daily Al-Sabah published in Turkey, has an interesting take on an emerging threat to the Turkey-Qatar alliance. It unerringly points to Al Jazeera English as the veritable spoiler and a possible chink in the growing Turkey-Qatar strategic partnership. It starts off the opinion article with the fact that Turkey and Qatar are strategic partners, and since 2015, the two countries have taken their political, economic and military relations to the next level, citing examples of how Turkey and Qatar have repeatedly come to each others' assistance. Today, that seemingly unshakable alliance is now under threat — from within, it wrote, stating, Al Jazeera English, Qatar's flagship news channel, has been spreading anti-Turkey propaganda. "Under the pretext of independent and objective journalism, the network has succumbed to bias and fake news to misportray known terrorists and fugitives from law as oppressed activists. Jumping on the Western media's Turkey-bashing bandwagon, the network smeared last month's Turkish operation into northeastern Syria with Operation Peace Spring with the PKK terrorist organization's talking points. In addition to failing to distinguish between Syrian Kurds and the PKK, an armed terrorist group, Al Jazeera English has actively charged Turkey, without a shred of evidence, with deporting Syrian refugees," Al-Sabah wrote. "This is a betrayal of Al Jazeera's own legacy. Funded by Qatar's government, the network has traditionally served to present an alternative view of the world. Al Jazeera Arabic continues to provide the region's perspective on global affairs and carves out room for alternative voices in the global mainstream. A small group of people within Al Jazeera English are deliberately dismantling the network's own legacy and undermining the Turkey-Qatar partnership in an attempt to dictate the Gulf nation's foreign policy," it added. It goes on to embellish the facts of how Turkey is in fact serving the region with its actions before turning its attack on the news channel and portal. "But Al Jazeera English, like Western outlets where some of its employees used to serve, refused to provide factual realities in the region. Instead, it reproduced the talking points of certain Western governments and the terrorist group they sponsor, on air," Al Sabah wrote. It added, "Without reciprocity, any relationship is at risk of falling apart. In light of Al Jazeera English's complicity in the smear campaign against Turkey, the Turkish people cannot be expected to support Qatar against countries, with which Turkey could easily join forces. "The Turkey-Qatar partnership's future is at stake. Before it is too late, Al Jazeera needs to weed out all individuals seeking to poison that alliance behind the smokescreen of independent journalism. Until the network takes necessary steps, the Turkish government must consider Al Jazeera English a hostile outlet. If Qatar wants to burn bridges with a key ally so that a handful of second-tier activists and washed-up Westerners can feel important, then Turkey has no reason to have Doha's back." Now that the Qatar crisis, following action by the Anti-Terror Quartet (ATQ) in mid-2017, has entered its third year with no solution in sight, it is time to take stock of how Turkey's support for Doha has affected its economic relations with other countries in the region and to understand whether it was worth it? Turkey with its quick and forceful siding with Doha at that time had raised eyebrows, for with that move Turkey risked damaging ties Saudi Arabia and the UAE, members of the quartet, with whom Ankara had equally better trade and investment links. However, it is now clear that Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan valued its diplomatic and ideological links with Qatar over its economic relations with the other two countries. The full economic and military aid to Qatar at the expense of friendship with others has put it in a spot, as it locked Turkey by building a bridge with one country in the region. With the ongoing tensions in the region having imposed a heavy economic cost on Turkey, it is unclear whether President Erdogan took these adverse developments fully into account when he decided to support Qatar. Now with Al-Sabah, seen as a voice of the government, stridently pointing its finger at Al Jazeera English, and asking Doha to take action, the seemingly rosy ties have hit some undercurrents. It just needs to be seen whether this ripple becomes a wave that could sweep the direction of the Turkey-Qatar relations, changing the tide yet again in this region.
