ИСТИНА

The geopolitics of the Middle East is witnessing a tectonic shift with the emergence of a Russian-Turkish-Iranian axis that would have seemed unbelievable until recently. Turkey, a functioning democracy and NATO’s only Muslim-majority member, was often presented as a model for the autocratic Arab Middle East. When the Arab Spring buffeted the Middle East, Turkey’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan saw an opportunity to actively promote this idea among the protestors in Arab autocracies. But the Arab Spring soon turned into winter, and Erdoğan’s relationship with NATO underwent a remarkable change. While retaining its NATO membership, Turkey has become part of the Russia-led triad engaged in peacemaking in the Syrian civil war outside the purview of the United Nations.