Whether we like it or not, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to be right when, in his speech on the occasion of the 955th anniversary of the Battle of Manzikert on Wednesday, he concluded by noting that “history is being rewritten in our region,” while also noting that “we have no other option in this geographic region than to be strong and united.” In other words, when a system is disrupted, a new order of things will inevitably emerge, on which Ankara aspires to leave a strong imprint.
Interestingly, the major catalyst for the disruption of the fragile balance that prevailed in the region was the essentially ineffective attack of the United States and Israel against Iran, which the Turkish president studiously avoided mentioning directly.
In our days and in the circumstances that have developed, Turkey’s most ardent enemy is Israel, though Erdogan did not directly refer to it in his speech. He only deemed appropriate to point out once that the victory of the Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan over the Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes opened not only the gate of Anatolia to the Turkish tribes, but also the “road that led Saladin to Jerusalem and Mehmed II to Istanbul.”
The essential thing is that the confrontation between Israel and Turkey is escalating, with President Erdogan accused by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of seeking to recreate the Ottoman Empire, while the latter is also seeking to secure a hegemonic position for his country in the Middle East by any means necessary.
