Ankara's decision to escalate tensions with Jerusalem is a calculated effort to fulfil Turkey's regional ambition to reassert itself as the leader of the surrounding Muslim Arab countries — neo-Ottomanism, as some call it, or Caliphate-lite.

Say what you wish about Erdogan, the man has earned his place in history. As leader of Turkey's seemingly moderate Islamic party, the AKP, he patiently laid siege to Turkish secular republicanism for nine years. With stealth and patience, Erdogan neutralised the army, the media and the courts, turning stout bastions of secularism, staunch defenders of democracy, and harsh critics of his rule into docile yes men. Those who dared not to bend to pressure lost their business, found themselves entangled in a web of criminal accusations or ended up in jail. 

With a more pliant polity, Erdogan  then undertook to change Turkey's foreign policy. The country's Western vocation as a secular democracy anchored to the fate of Europe and America gave way to dreams of Ottoman revival, imperial grandeur and Islamic leadership. While remaining a full member of Nato, Erdogan sought alliances and friendships among regional tyrants and autocrats, forging fruitful relations with Bashar al-Assad's Syria and pushing for trade expansion with Iran, as if sanctions were meaningless to Ankara's new sultan. Whenever Turkey was criticised — for example, for welcoming a Hamas delegation in Ankara soon after it had won parliamentary elections in February 2006 — its leaders replied that their actions enabled them to rise above regional divisions and "mediate".