ANKARA: As Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attends the 162nd Ordinary Council of Foreign Ministers of the Arab League in Cairo on Tuesday, attention is focused on how this will impact Turkiye’s ongoing efforts to further normalize relations with its Arab neighbors after years of strained ties.
It has been 13 years since a Turkish foreign minister attended a summit of the 22-member Arab League. Ankara sees the visit as a strategic move to strengthen Turkiye’s regional ties with the members on a more institutionalized basis, while exploring new avenues for cooperation and mutual benefit.
The country’s previous military operations in Libya, Somalia and Syria have strained relations with the Arab League, which has frequently criticized such actions.
Fidan’s presence at the summit is particularly noteworthy because, as the former head of intelligence, he was instrumental in initiating the normalization process with Gulf countries in 2020.
Since becoming foreign minister last year, he has continued his efforts to improve relations with the region, holding several meetings with Arab diplomats and Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
Political consultations were also held in Ankara in February between Deputy Foreign Minister Ambassador Ahmet Yildiz and Arab League Deputy Secretary-General Ambassador Hossam Zaki.
More recently, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi made a long-awaited visit to Turkiye after years of bitter rivalry.
In response to the Gaza conflict, Turkiye has joined a joint contact group formed at a summit of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to seek an end to the violence.
On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed an alliance among Islamic countries to counter Israeli “expansionism.”
Soner Cagaptay, senior fellow at The Washington Institute, told Arab News: “There seems to be a wide consensus among Arab League members that the Syrian regime should be rehabilitated and integrated into the international system. One piece of this is Turkish-Syrian normalization.
“Key members of the Arab world, including those that have financial ties with Turkiye such as Saudi Arabia and UAE, have long insisted that Ankara also normalize ties with Egypt, which has happened, but I think that those two countries are also driving the normalization process between Ankara and Damascus.”
In the meantime, Turkiye and the Gulf Cooperation Council are currently negotiating a free trade agreement.
Syria’s return as a full member of the Arab League last year and Damascus’s approval of Turkiye’s participation in the summit are also significant for the latter’s ongoing normalization talks with Syria since the countries broke off relations in 2011.
While Turkiye has improved relations with the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, its efforts to normalize ties with Damascus are progressing gradually.
Galip Dalay, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, thinks Fidan’s presence at the summit reflects the level of normalization achieved between Turkiye and the Arab world so far.
“Recent developments had tested this to some extent, not least the Gaza war. Rather than undermining it, the war has underpinned this normalization process as Turkiye has pursued a policy prioritizing Arab agencies on the subject,” he told Arab News.
Dalay thinks this also signifies revisiting Turkiye’s pre-Arab Spring regional policies, favoring good relations with Arab governments and elites.
“It indicates a gradual, economy-focused regional policy centered on positive interactions with Arab elites. Syria, in any case, had no luxury to reject Turkiye’s participation in the Summit,” he added.
According to widespread rumors over the summer, Turkiye is expected to extend an invitation to Syrian President Bashar Assad “any time” for possible talks to restore bilateral relations. Alternatively, both parties could meet in a third country. Speaking at the NATO summit in July in Washington, Erdogan said he had assigned Turkiye’s foreign minister to follow up on this issue.
In the meantime, the country’s spy chief, Ibrahim Kalin, recently visited Libya to help overcome the ongoing political impasse over oil exports.
“By the final months of 2020, not only Ankara but also all the capitals of the Middle East, including Tel Aviv, began initiating normalization processes with one another. This shift was a natural consequence of a pragmatic reassessment of the region’s political climate, which has been tense since 2011,” Betul Dogan-Akkas, assistant professor of international relations at Ankara University’s international relations department, told Arab News.
“Minister Fidan, as the chief of intelligence, has played a key role in shaping strategic normalization efforts with the Gulf, Egypt and Syria. His actions as foreign minister reflect this new era in regional diplomacy,” she added.
“During a critical visit to Ankara last week, President El-Sisi emphasized Egypt’s eagerness to collaborate with Turkiye to strengthen regional peace, including addressing conflicts in Libya and Syria. Initially, his comments were interpreted as an attempt to leverage Cairo’s role in Turkiye-Syria cooperation.”
According to Dogan-Akkas, combining these dynamics suggests that Turkiye has proposed a new diplomatic approach to the Arab world, one that seeks to move beyond political controversies and establish strategically significant diplomatic channels since the end of 2020.
“If Turkiye successfully navigates this process and underscores its constructive role in the region, it could lead to a long-term strengthening of relations with both Syria and Egypt,” she said.
