Under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Turkey has undergone a profound transformation that links its domestic social engineering with its foreign policy ambitions. Over the past two decades, the systematic erosion of the republic's secular foundations has served as a launchpad for a highly ideological and aggressive regional stance. This shift represents a deliberate departure from Turkey's traditional pro-Western, non-interventionist foreign policy in favor of a pan-Islamist doctrine. By cultivating domestic religious conservatism and championing Islamist actors abroad, Ankara seeks to position itself as the preeminent leader of the Sunni Muslim world.
The Transition from Kemalism to Neo-Ottoman Islamism
The modern Republic of Turkey was established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk on the strict principles of secularism, Westernization, and a focus on domestic consolidation over external expansion. For decades, the Turkish military acted as the guardian of this secular system, keeping political Islam on the margins of public life and steering the state toward integration with Western institutions like NATO. However, the electoral victory of the AKP in 2002 initiated a gradual, stealthy deconstruction of this secular-democratic framework. The new political elite successfully sidelined the secular military establishment, allowing them to systematically reintroduce religion into the state's educational, legal, and social spheres.
At the heart of this domestic transformation was the philosophy of Milli Gorus, the progenitor of modern Turkish political Islam that advocates for the unification of the Muslim world. Erdogan utilized this ideology to restructure the education system, expanding state-run religious preacher schools and introducing lessons on jihad to public school curricula. This systematic domestic social engineering aimed to cultivate what Erdogan explicitly termed a "pious generation" loyal to his conservative vision. Consequently, as the domestic arena became increasingly Islamized, Turkey’s foreign policy began to mirror this internal shift, transitioning from a neutral diplomatic player to an active patron of regional Islamist movements.
Key Pillars of Turkey's Islamized Regional Policy
- Sponsorship of the Muslim Brotherhood: Following the upheavals of the Arab Spring in 2011, Ankara transformed itself into a primary diplomatic, financial, and logistical sanctuary for the Muslim Brotherhood network across the Middle East and North Africa.
- Direct Support for Hamas Terrorists: Turkey rejected the international consensus designating Hamas as a terrorist organization, instead providing its senior leadership with Turkish passports, high-level diplomatic hosting, and freedom to plan operations from Istanbul.
- Reversion of Secular Symbols: The 2020 reconversion of the historic Hagia Sophia museum into a mosque symbolized the definitive domestic triumph of Erdogan's Islamist agenda over Ataturk's secular legacy, drawing praise from transnational Islamist groups.
Strategic Analysis of Turkey's Pan-Islamist Alliances
The intersection of Turkey's domestic Islamization and its foreign policy is most visible in its operational and ideological alignment with the Muslim Brotherhood and its Palestinian offshoot, Hamas. According to a comprehensive study by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Turkey has actively consolidated its role as a primary base for transnational Islamist mobilization. Under this paradigm, Ankara has facilitated Hamas fundraising networks and allowed senior Hamas figures like Khaled Meshal and Ismail Haniyeh to operate with complete impunity. This supportive environment has enabled the terror group to coordinate military planning and transfer funds while enjoying the political cover of a major NATO member state.
This deliberate support for violent actors is not merely a tactical maneuver, but a reflection of the deep-seated ideological changes within Turkish society. Long-term research by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy demonstrates that decades of state-sponsored Islamist propaganda have successfully radicalized public attitudes. By systematically presenting Hamas as a legitimate resistance movement and framing Western powers and Israel as existential enemies, the AKP has created a domestic environment where anti-Western and antisemitic sentiments are mainstream. This domestic radicalization creates a self-reinforcing loop, where Erdogan must continually adopt hostile foreign policy stances to satisfy the pious electorate his policies have cultivated.
Geopolitical Implications and the Threat to Israel
For the State of Israel and the broader Middle East, Turkey's domestic transformation represents a long-term strategic challenge that cannot be resolved through simple diplomatic engagement. Under Erdogan, Turkey has moved from a vital strategic partner of Jerusalem to an active adversary that seeks to undermine Israeli security and delegitimize its sovereignty. The state-led propagation of political Islam has permanently altered the social and political fabric of Turkey, making a return to the previous secular, pro-Western alliance highly unlikely in the near future. Consequently, Israel must view Turkey not as a reliable regional broker, but as a primary sponsor of the regional Islamist axis that directly threatens democratic stability.