Spotlight: Latest Turkey-UAE dispute symbolizes regional rivalry in Mideast

ANKARA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The latest row between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the history of Ottoman era represents the rivalry of two alliances in the Middle East, experts said.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the charges d'affairs of the UAE embassy in Ankara on Thursday to protest the UAE minister's post, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official told Xinhua on condition anonymity.

The latest dispute surfaced when UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan retweeted a Twitter post on Dec. 16, criticizing Fahreddin Pasha - a Medina governor and commander of the Ottoman Empire during the World War I - for committing crimes against the people of Medina during the siege of the city in 1916.

He accused the official of stealing treasures of the people of Medina and smuggling handwritten manuscripts to Istanbul.

"These are (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan's ancestors and their history with Arab Muslims," said the top UAE diplomat.

Erdogan on Thursday fought back by slamming the UAE minister's comments on the former Ottoman official, saying Pasha "was protecting Medina from intruders instead of stealing its treasures."

He also criticized al-Nahyan for being "a man spoiled in the hands of the oil."

Erdogan's spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin on Tuesday suggested that al-Nahyan was aiming to put the Turks against Arabs.

"We see that the two countries started to take side in the alliance system formed in the region," Oytun Orhan, an expert from the Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM), told Xinhua.

In addition to this dispute, Turkey and the UAE also have opposite views on other major issues in the region, including the Qatari crisis and the Jerusalem issue.

While the Saudi Arabia-backed alliance, including the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed a full blockade on Doha in early June, Ankara has been siding with Doha.

Turkey has set up a military base in Qatar to showcase its support after the crisis started, while providing the much-need food supplies to the rich Gulf nation to offset the Saudi-led blockade as Iran did.

Ankara has also taken steps to improve its ties with Iran, an enemy to most of the Gulf nations led by Saudi Arabia.

"Turkey has never been a part of this anti-Iranian bloc. Despite having problems with Iran, Turkey keeps a balanced policy and tried to escape from the Shiite-Sunni confrontation," Orhan said.

Turkey and the UAE also have different positions on U.S. President Donald Trump's recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Orhan noted.

Turkey, a non-Arab country with a Muslim-dominated population, takes the most outspoken position among other regional countries against the U.S. Jerusalem decision.

Erdogan also convened an urgent summit of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) which called for recognition of East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine.

But the leaders of the UAE and Saudi Arabia did not attend the OIC summit in Istanbul, which illustrated the obvious difference between the two sides.

The Saudi and UAE camp are reportedly seeking rapprochement with Israel, at a time when Turkey is at odds with both Israel and the U.S., Orhan said.

Orhan noted that the fued between Ankara and Abu Dhabi goes bak to the days of a coup d'etat in Egypt in 2013 that removed Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood movement from power.

While the UAE openly supported the coup in Egypt, the Turkish government, which politically embraces Muslim Brotherhood movements in the region, took side with Morsi.

The most concrete indicator of the dispute in the Turkish-UAE relations at the time was that the UAE did not send an ambassador to Ankara till 2016.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu visited the Gulf country in 2016 and stated that a new page was opened in relations.

But, following Turkey's July 15 coup attempt in 2016, the bilateral relations have become tense again, as Turkey accused the Gulf country of "financing the coup."

"We know very well who in the Gulf was happy with the coup attempt in Turkey," Erdogan said, indirectly pointing a finger at the UAE.

The allegation that the UAE played role in the coup attempt has angered Turkey, which has once again adopted a firm stance toward the Gulf country, Orhan said.

Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu on Thursday called on the government to withdraw its ambassador in Abu Dhabi even the UAE does not apologize for its latest comments. Enditem