https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210921-turkey-bahrain-relations-are-developing-turkish-fm-says/
Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu spoke with his Bahrani counterpart Zayani at the recent assembly of the United Nations in New York City, and took to social media to celebrate and publicize the improvement of foreign relations between the two states. It is reported that the two counterparts and more largely, the respective nations are both active in improving their relations since 2017. In 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt all blockaded and cut off diplomatic and interstate ties with their neighboring Qatar due to implications and evidence that the government of Qatar was supporting global terror, including housing Muslim Brotherhood within its’ borders. Bahrain made the choice to also cut ties with Qatar following suite with its neighbors, while Turkey actively supported Qatar with military and general relief to the state. Due to this, until now, Bahrain and Turkey have actively been on opposing ends in the region. This should all be seen as a sign of diplomatic skill from Bahrain, a tiny island nation with only oil as a resource. Bahrain is showing its ability to work on larger powers and be in the factions of groups that can protect them, such as Saudi Arabia, while also quickly cutting off unnecessary negative relations when a crisis is done, with the competing foreign power, Turkey. An impact this could possibly have on the region, and also in the UN meetings currently happening, is a strengthening and aggressive diplomatic push by Saudi Arabia, so as to not allow its farther off competitor to sure up support from many of SA’s own neighbors. To relate back to IR, this is a very open showing of the effectiveness and influence multinational organizations such as the UN can have. Even when an organization such as the UN may be weaker in its’ ability to work on its own authority, it creates situations in which diplomatic relations can be improved and tensions can ease, nearly its whole purpose. This is similar to the Arab League. I also believe this relates to the IR concept discussed certainly on the Pakistani-India conflict that religious differences can have long-standing effects. While nearly the rest of the Arab peninsula is Sunni, Bahrain is majority Shiite which could arguably have made them now more inclined to work with Turkey more often, one of the few Muslim countries not ardently Sunni, but proponents of Muslim secularism and far more rooted in regime politics rather than a specific religion, which could have been a minor drawback for Bahrain in its dealings with Saudi Arabia, which is the most explicitly Sunni Muslim state in the world.