Regarding the Turkey-Iran-Russia summit in Tehran, The New York Times (NYT) said that Turkey took part in the summit that “challenged the West.” In The Wall Street Journal, it was commented that “(Russian President Vladimir) Putin used the trip to shore up friendly relations with both Iran and Turkey, and to push back on the international isolation imposed on him.” On the other hand, Al Jazeera preferred the headline “Turkey’s (President Recep Tayyip) Erdoğan renews case for Syria operation at Tehran talks.”
There is more than one reason why the NYT commented that "the summit that challenges the West," but the most important thing is that the summit took place right after U.S. President Joe Biden’s trip to the Middle Eastern countries. Biden knocked on the doors of many countries, including Israel and Saudi Arabia. His agenda was to gather support against Russia on the axis of the Ukraine war and the Iranian influence in the Middle East.
From this perspective, Turkey's unique position in diplomacy stands out once again. Erdoğan, who recently contacted Biden at the NATO summit in Madrid, met with the countries' leaders standing on the opposite side of the bloc, namely Putin and Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, at a time when the regional competition was at its peak. It would not be wrong to say that Erdoğan is the only leader who can meet with everyone in this process where the global crises are deepening. It should also be noted that Putin, who did not visit any place other than the former Soviet countries after the Ukraine war, came out of "isolation" for the summit.
Let's continue to explain Turkey's unique position in diplomacy. With his speech at the summit, which “challenges the West,” Erdoğan challenged not only the West but everyone on the issue of terrorism and used the following statements:
“As the Astana guarantors, our expectation from the Russian Federation and Iran is to support Turkey in this fight ... Tal Rifaat and Manbij have become a hotbed of terror. The time has come to clean up these harbors where the terrorist organization took refuge. Our expectation from our Astana partners is their sincere support for our efforts to achieve stability in Syria.”
In his speech, Erdoğan openly stated at the leadership level that Moscow and Tehran should support Ankara against a counterterrorism operation to be conducted in Syria. This means being open and strengthening hands at the table of counterterrorism diplomacy. Especially when Washington keeps sending the messages of "we are against the operation.”
