Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used the recent Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit as a grandstanding opportunity to pitch his qualifications to lead the Islamic world.
Erdogan hosted the OIC, which bills itself as the "Collective Voice of the Islamic World," in Istanbul for the April 14-15 summit. He used his opening address to blast the West again and to call on the Islamic world to unite to solve its own problems rather than relying on outsiders, who he said are only pursuing their own energy interests.