Erdogan in the center of the game

He is one of the masters of the geopolitical gamewe fear it, we frequent it, we flatter it, while it reduces freedoms in Türkiye, making its main political adversary imprison. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Mohammed Ben Salmane, Benyamin Netanyahu, Narendra Modi or Ilham Aliev, one of these raminagrobis who advance their pawns, aware of their geographic assets (access to the Black Sea), economic. In recent months, in this third world war in pieces that François and Léon XIV denounced, the strong man of Turkey is essential.

On a major strategic fieldErdogan is a double blow: he was alone who was able to offer to Ukraine and Russia – in 2022 and in this spring 2025 – to find himself in Türkiye. And whatever the results, the symbol is there! Ankara, although ALLIÉ de kyiv, has never broken with Moscow, and will have contributed to that exchanges continue between the Russian state and the world, lightening the effect of sanctions.

He is then the one who helped the Islamist movement Hayat Tahrir al-Cham To go for Damascus and overthrow Bashar El Assad. He presents himself as a benevolent protector of the new diet: the withdrawal of Shiite Iran, which supported the Assad regime, leaves him the opportunity for a long time. Ankara offers new managers its natural gas, negotiates a defense agreement. The Syrian Kurds, terribly oppressed by Turkey, only have to keep themselves well and to lower their weapons*. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu probably prefers to have, on the Syrian field, this Sunni competitor with whom it is easier to negotiate than with his sworn enemies of Tehran. It is also the Arab powers, especially the Gulf, which are repositioned against the new sultan.

In the NATO which must rearm, Ankara is an ally as inconvenient as they are inconvenient. Turkey is influential in Libya and elsewhere in Africa. In the Caucasus, Erdogan supports the Azéris in front of the Armenians, who fear a Panturque conquest which would go to the doors of an allied China. In short, the sublime door remains a major player between Europe and Asia.