How will Prime Minister Erdogan’s popularity in the Arab and Muslim worlds impact Turkey’s power?
Prime Minister Erdogan is a popular figure and he is somewhat of a populist himself. He enjoys stirring up public support and has at least two constituencies. One is the Turkish constituency itself—the country is in the run-up to elections and the themes that he has been raising, including tension with Israel, have been popular. He is certainly playing to a domestic audience. The other constituency is the Arab and Muslim world. Given Turkey’s increased economic ambitions and political interests in the Arab and the Muslim world, increasing Erdogan’s and Turkey’s popularity is useful for Turkey. And this has been achieved in the last few weeks. Turkey’s popularity increased after the Gaza war in December 2008 and January 2009 when Ankara was critical of Israel’s war on Gaza, which was an extremely popular position in the Arab world. It was furthered by Turkey’s decision a few months ago to launch an Arabic language Turkish television station as Turkish programs on Arabic television are b
