There are two problems about Qatar’s gift of a $500 million luxury Boeing 747 to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The first problem is that the emirate should have thought it was a sensible gift at this time. The second difficulty is that the Turkish leader should have seen fit to accept it.

Every sovereign state has the right to dispose of its largesse as it thinks fit, providing this generosity is not actually directed toward the support of international terrorists and other criminals. Qatar has a sad record of sustaining the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) throughout the Islamic world. It has argued unsuccessfully that the Brotherhood is a moderate political movement seeking change through the ballot box. Yet the record shows that behind the polite and smiling MB politicians there hides a brutal militancy made up of groups that disguise themselves with different names. Thus for instance in Libya, Ansar Al-Sharia has provided the thuggish enforcers for those same ingratiating MB public figures who protest they are dedicated to a purely peaceful democratic process.

Egypt’s brief but disturbing experience of MB domination under Mohammed Morsi demonstrated the movement’s real agenda. Far from working with politicians from other parties to undo the corruption and misgovernment of the Mubarak years, Morsi began to unpick the popular revolution that had led to his presidency. It quickly became clear to moderate opinion that he was leading Egypt towards a regime that would be many times worse than that which had gone before. But Qatar and Turkey were both cheerleaders for the MB president.

Ansar Al-Sharia and other violent MB offshoots in Libya received regular supplies of arms and ammunition direct from Turkey, which also treated its many wounded in hospitals in Istanbul, Ankara, Konya and Adana. It was never clear who picked up the considerable medical bills, but there are good reasons to suppose it was Qatar.

Turkish arms makers, ship owners and businessmen, not least those who produce the large grey inflatable rubber dinghies in which Libyan human traffickers launch their victims into the Mediterranean, are glad of the profitable trade. But the Turkish government has been ever less able to fund this overseas interference.

Indeed the once flourishing Turkish economy is in a downward spiral. Collapsing international confidence in the republic’s stability and political direction has impacted on the high foreign borrowings of the ambitious private sector. Fresh credits not only cost considerably more but also are now much harder to find. Outside lenders are ever less willing to “roll over” borrowings even for substantial upfront fees. The collapsing Turkish lira is making it far harder for the corporate sector to pay back existing foreign loans. Erdogan blames an overseas conspiracy. Yet almost all his troubles are self-inflicted. Raving at imaginary outside enemies undermines his position even more.

As prime minister and now president, Erdogan has led his country since 2003 with genuine popular support. But Turks of all classes are suffering growing economic hardship. Now was not the time for their president to add a half-billion-dollar jet to his existing 11-aircraft presidential fleet. And if Qatar really wanted to help Turkey, how much better to have directed that half billion toward feeding and warming the increasing number of poor Turks who can no longer make ends meet.