The new Turkish-Pakistani axis is founded on soap opera, not statecraft
Allied with great powers China and Russia, the thinking goes, a new Istanbul-centred caucus of states could give Pakistan greater leverage in shaping the world than it has enjoyed in decades.
December 26, 2020 / 08:14 AM IST
In a mud-walled schoolroom in Gaza, Palestinian children listen, big-eyed with wonder, to stories of the great medieval warrior Salah al-Din Ibn Ayyub, liberator of the holy city of Jerusalem. Kazakh students hear, in awe, of the great Turkic civilisation that spanned Asia. In Bosnia, locals celebrate the Turkish team’s triumph; an immigrant taxi driver corrects his passenger’s grasp of Ottoman history.