Analysts are focusing on deepening concerns that Turkey may be moving away from the West and pivoting both toward geopolitical rivals such as China and regional antagonists such as Iran.

Newsweek describes Ankara’s moves as a shift toward an Islamist model:

But recent dramatic shifts in policy may also be part of Erdogan’s search for a new political role, steering Turkey away from its century-long secularism and turning it towards a new model in which Islam trumps democracy and Turkey moves from being not simply one more member of the NATO alliance but a major world power in its own right with ties around the globe.

The outlet also gestures toward emerging regional dynamics which have pitted the U.S.’s traditional Israeli and Arab allies against a Shiite bloc anchored by Iran against extremist Sunni elements including the Muslim Brotherhood, and notes that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) have moved to embrace the Brotherhood and aligned parties.

Recent months have seen Ankara move closer to signing a $3.4 billion missile defense deal with China that European diplomats have bluntly said would insert a Chinese “virus” into NATO’s command and control system. Ankara’s deliberations come amid an expose published last month by the Washington Post reporting that Turkey had passed Western intelligence to Iran, including the identities of nearly a dozen Iranians who were working with the Mossad to expose clandestine elements of Iran’s nuclear program.

Meanwhile Erdogan this week announced a policy that would outlaw coed housing at state universities. The move – which comes after similar ones that included alcohol consumption and crackdowns on books that described evolution – is likely to deepen concerns over AKP Islamism.

[Photo: Federik Bonzano / YouTube]