At the recent Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit, Erdogan coined the idea of being the leader of the Islamic world. Leading this summit, Erdogan once again made his call to unite the Islamic world to solve their own issues rather than relying on foreign Western powers.

Speaking to the influential leaders of the Middle East, including Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saul and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, he pointed out the need to end the sectarianism between countries. At this summit, Erdogan stated that "My religion is not that of Sunnis, of Shiites. My religion is Islam." It is also noted that Erdogan stayed close to King Salman during the summit, having him sit next to him and agreeing with most of what he say. Many journalists are under the impression that Erdogan is starting to look toward the Middle East for allies, as opposed to the West.

It is not surprising that he is starting to look more and more away from the West. The European Union stated how Erdogan is not encouraging the democratic reform process, but weakening it by taking away the freedom of the press and freedom of expression. Erdogan, obviously angered by this, stated that the Middle East does not need the West to help fix the Middle East's issues. He even went as far as saying, "If we don’t act, others do. But when they do, they do so for the sake of the oil there, not to bring harmony among us."

Though Erdogan wants to help the Middle East, abandoning the West is not the way to go. In fact, it is the exact opposite way to go.

When the Republic of Turkey was founded by Kemal Mustafa Ataturk in 1923, he wanted the nation to be an independent country, free of monarchy and sultans. He turned the nation into a secular state, adopting many Western policies, laws, and styles. He replaced the education system to make it into a scientific and secular based one, replaced the old Ottoman alphabet with a modern alphabet using Latin letters (which helped increase literacy), abolished the caliphate and gave the right to vote to women. During his presidency, Turkey was at its most modern and democratic.

What Erdogan is doing and what is proposing is going against everything Ataturk and his supports fought for, bringing the nation back from their modern progressiveness and back to their Ottoman roots. To claim that the Islamic countries need to unite, under a man who is taking Turkey away from its secular Kemalist background, is not what the Middle East needs. Having the Middle East led by a man who cannot even uphold his own country's values is shameful.

What Erdogan said will not go unnoticed. All countries will keep their eyes on Turkey and on Erdogan to see what moves he will make next. Erdogan did not just use the summit as a political tool for power, but showed that he will do what ever it takes to have the Middle East in his pocket and away from the West.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/04/...