The roots of the Turkish-Qatari-Ikhwani alliance and its activities in North Africa and the Middle East

ABSTRACT

The article considers the formation of the Turkish-Qatari-Ikhwani alliance, which attained international prominence and strengthened its leadership position in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) during the events of the Arab Spring. While some researchers posit the formation of this alliance just before the Arab Spring, this study argues that cooperation between Türkiye, Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan) has deeper roots, going back to the 1960s. Further, the article argues that the most important factor in the rapprochement between Qatar and Türkiye was their cooperation with the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamist organisation. Despite the rise of the counterweight Saudi-Emerati alliance, Doha and Ankara continue to play an important role in the region, with the mediation role of Qatar in the context of the renewed conflict between Hamas and Israel a particular focus.

KEYWORDS:

• Qatar
• Türkiye
• Muslim Brotherhood
• Islamism
• Hamas
• North Africa
• Middle East

Acknowledgement

This paper is an output of a research project implemented as part of the Basic Research Program at the HSE University in Moscow in 2024.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In this article we rely on the following definitions of Islamism: (1) ‘A form of instrumentalization of Islam by individuals, groups and organizations that pursue political objectives … , a form that provides political responses to today’s societal challenges by imagining a future, the foundations for which rest on re-appropriated, reinvented concepts borrowed from the Islamic traditions’ (Guilain Denoeux, ‘The Forgotten Swamp: Navigating Political Islam,’ Middle East Policy 9, no. 2 (2002): 56–81. P. 61.; see also Dilshod Achilov, ‘Revisiting Political Islam: Explaining the Nexus between Political Islam and Contentious Politics in the Arab World,’ Social Science Quarterly 97, no. 2 (2016): 252–270. P. 253); (2) ‘A body of faith that has something important to say about how politics and society should be ordered in the contemporary Muslim world and implemented in some fashion’ (Graham Fuller, The future of political Islam (New York: Macmillan, 2004). P. xi; ‘Islamism is a political trend and ideology, widespread in Muslim, especially Arab countries. Islamism is based on the idea of placing a high value (or even superiority) on the rules and traditions of Islam, on the need to build life (in varying degrees) in accordance with variously understood principles of Islam; it is oriented at the organizing politically around people who put some Islamic (or interpreted as Islamic) ideas and principles at the center of political life’ (Leonid Grinin, Andrey Korotayev and Arno Tausch, Islamism, Arab Spring, and the Future of Democracy. World System and World Values Perspectives [Cham: Springer Nature, 2019] P. 64).

2 Neil Ketchley, Egypt in a Time of Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017).

3 David Roberts, ‘Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood: Pragmatism or Preference?,’ Middle East Policy 21, no. 3 (2014): 84–94.

4 Kristina Kausch, ‘Foreign Funding’ in Post-Revolution Tunisia (Brussels: FRIDE, 2013).

5 David Roberts, ‘Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood: Pragmatism or Preference?’.

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8 David Roberts, ‘Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood: Pragmatism or Preference?’.

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14 See Aleksey Vasiliev et al., ‘Qatari-Turkish Alliance Challenge for Regional Leadership’. For opposing views see ‘US Response to Egypt Crisis’, 15 July 2013, Wilson Center, United States, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/us-response-to-egypt-crisis.

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36 Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who was hired by Abdullah bin Turki al-Subaey (the head of the Islamic Science Department of the Ministry of Education, who in turn, went to al-Azhar to offer Islamic teachers and officials jobs in Qatar), was a key role player in these developments. See David Roberts, ‘Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood: Pragmatism or Preference?’ P. 86.

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39 Muhammad Qutb (Sayyid Qutb’s brother), Mohammed al-Ghazali and Abul Wafa al-Taftazani were among these prominent lecturers. See David Roberts, ‘Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood: Pragmatism or Preference?’ P. 89.

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42 Birol Baskan and Steven Wright, ‘Seeds of Change: Comparing State-Religion Relations in Qatar and Saudi Arabia.’ P. 97.

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51 For example, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood was represented at the congress by Mustafa Mashhour, Mamun Al-Hudaibi and Mohammed Mehdi Akef, who subsequently held senior positions in the association from 1996 to 2010

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117 Thus, on 26 April 2021 Qatary Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met on with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah Al Saud, who was visiting the country. Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs expressed, during the meeting, the State of Qatar's full support for all measures taken by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to combat drug trafficking in all its forms. See ‘Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Meets Saudi Foreign Minister’. Ministry of Foreign Affairs.News. (2021). https://mofa.gov.qa/en/all-mofa-news/details/1442/09/14/deputy-prime-minister-and-minister-of-foreign-affairs-meets-saudi-foreign-minister (accessed February 10, 2024).

118 Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Meets Saudi Minister of State, Cabinet Member Acting Foreign Minister. Ministry of Foreign Affairs.News. (2021). https://mofa.gov.qa/en/all-mofa-news/details/1443/01/17/deputy-prime-minister-and-minister-of-foreign-affairs-meets-saudi-minister-of-state-cabinet-member-acting-foreign-minister (accessed February 10, 2024).

119 Russia: Turkey agrees in principle to handle 1 million tons of grain for Africa. Reuters. (2023). https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/russia-turkey-agrees-principle-handle-1-mln-tons-grain-africa-2023-09-06/#:~:text=Reuters-,Russia%3A%20Turkey%20agrees%20in%20principle%20to%20handle%201,tons%20of%20grain%20for%20Africa&text=Sept%206%20(Reuters)%20-%20Russia,with%20financial%20support%20from%20Qatar. (accessed September 10, 2023).

120 Stasa Salacanin, Saudi Arabia and Qatar race to increase their influence in Somalia. The New Arab. (2019). https://www.newarab.com/analysis/saudi-arabia-qatar-rift-over-somalia (accessed February 10, 2024).

121 Ali Bakir, How Ethiopia's Red Sea deal could impact Israel, Egypt, and the UAE, The New Arab, (2024). https://www.newarab.com/analysis/how-israel-egypt-and-uae-view-ethiopias-red-sea-deal (accessed February 10, 2024).

122 Beatrice Farhat, Somali president visits Qatar, Egypt amid row over Somaliland-Ethiopia deal. Al-Monitor. (2024). https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2024/01/somali-president-visits-qatar-egypt-amid-row-over-somaliland-ethiopia-deal (accessed February 10, 2024).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Timur R Khayrullin

Timur Khayrullin is Senior Researcher of the Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies at the Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences. He is also Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Sciences, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia.

Andrey V Korotayev

Andrey Korotayev is Director of the Center for Stability and Risks Analysis at the HSE University in Moscow, Russia. He is also Senior Research Professor at the Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences. He received his PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Manchester and he received a habilitated doctorate from the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences. He has authored or co-authored over 650 scholarly publications, including such monographs as Ancient Yemen (Oxford University Press, 1995), World Religions and Social Evolution of the Old World Oikumene Civilizations: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (The Edwin Mellen Press, 2004), Great Divergence and Great Convergence. A Global Perspective (Springer, 2015; with Leonid Grinin), Economic Cycles, Crises, and the Global Periphery (Springer, 2016; with Leonid Grinin), Islamism, Arab Spring, and the Future of Democracy. World System and World Values Perspectives (Springer, 2019; with Leonid Grinin and Arno Tausch), Handbook of Revolutions in the 21st Century: The New Waves of Revolutions, and the Causes and Effects of Disruptive Political Change (Springer, 2022; with Jack A. Goldstone and Leonid Grinin). He is a laureate of a Russian Science Support Foundation Award in ‘The Best Economists of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Nomination (2006); in 2012, he was awarded with the Gold Kondratieff Medal by the International N. D. Kondratieff Foundation.