Turkiye's geography is cursed.
You have the Balkans, Caucasus, and the Middle East.
But that's their own fault isn't it?
We Turks are open to cooperate with all. But they all see us as enemy. The Arabs, Balkans and beyond. Their pride would never accept to work with Turks for betterment of their people.
So, I have no sympathy.
Across you have the Black sea which is Ukraine vs Russia and in the Med Sea across you have North Africa.
All former Turkic territory. Funny isn't it when Turks are not in power it becomes hell on earth. Same with Ottomans giving special treatments to minorities.. that worked out so well for the Ottomans too lol.
If we go further we find ourselves in Central Asia which is next to China then you have Afghanistan along with Pakistan vs India.
We're not in a position to do anything.
We had to face WW1 betrayal for us change our ways.
We had to suffer Cyprus and Balkan disaster to our people.
we had no one to come to our aid which makes us want to prosper and not let our children suffer the same fate as our elders.
We're doing better now, but nowhere near enough to take care of all these regions. But we're getting there.
Turkiye can no longer afford a peace at home and peace in the world doctrine. Doesnt mean Turkiye gets itself into wars or do policies based on emotions but it also cannot afford to stay inactive and be friendly with everybody. That works for Portugal or Norway but not for Turkiye.
Got no choice but to be inactive for all these years. We produced nothing and relied heavily on west for arms. with strings attached of course. What could we done to change the fate for our neighbours? A lot of them openly hate us too.
I get the argument for Syria, as they're border neighbour .. but Saudi Arabia? Why should we care about their inter-Arab conflicts ..
In the Middle East right now the biggest threat to Turkiye is Israel, UAE and Iran.
If this Makkah pact has to work everybody has to offer something to do the table. The Saudis can no longer rely on dangling money they need to get their act together and offer what they can do.
We said the same for Egypt too when they were flirting with Greece. Now they're friends. Saudi was also hostile too over their Kashoggi incident.
I really do struggle to see any benefits of this pact. we shall see.