Yasin Aktay, chief advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who shapes Turkish foreign policy for the Muslim and Arab worlds, has advocated a caliphate vision for Turkey, calling the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-e-Islami Turkey’s soft power proxies.
In a video interview aired by the Islamist Hilal TV, Aktay complained about the lack of an international political body that represents all Muslims since the abolishment of the caliphate in Turkey in 1924 and said Turkey under the Erdogan government was playing this role in practice by defending oppressed and victimized Muslims.
During the program, conveniently titled “From Nation to Ummah” and presented by Hamza Turkmen, Aktay maintained that the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East and Jamaat-e-Islami in East Asia function as the elements of Turkey’s soft power today.
Aktay was deputy chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) responsible for managing the AKP’s foreign relations and served as party spokesperson. He is currently chief advisor to party leader Erdogan.
