Turkey: The France of the Middle East

[LETHALFORCE]

http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trend-lines

Turkey: The France of the Middle East

There's a real bitter irony to the fact that the historic visit of Massoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government, to Ankara was overshadowed by the diplomatic firestorm over the Israeli attack on the Gaza aid flotilla. In many ways, Turkey's success in 2007 in getting the Bush administration to take seriously its concerns over Kurdish PKK militants camped out in northern Iraq was a turning point in Turkey's emergence as a diplomatic force to be reckoned with in the region. That campaign included a very loud phase of sabre-rattling that culminated in the U.S. holding Barzani back as the Turks conducted cross-border air raids targeting PKK camps in the Qandil mountains. And that was just the latest in a long history of heavy-handed Turkish reprisal attacks against a terrorist outfit whose armed struggle was in defense of Turkey's poorly treated Kurdish minority.

In other words, regardless of how justified the condemnation of Israel's handling of the aid flotilla, in particular, and Gaza, in general, might be, there's no small amount of hypocrisy, and an enormous amount of opportunism to Turkey taking such a vocal lead in those condemnations. And I say that as someone who has been on the record as being a real admirer of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Turkey's foreign policy over the past few years.

That said, I think the backlash against Turkey is also a bit overblown. Every few years, there's a collective recognition that Turkey is a friend and ally, one with its own agenda, and one not willing to bow down in submission to the U.S. The same thing happened in 2003 before the Iraq war, and a few times since then. But that usually gets expressed as a panicky sense that we're "losing" Turkey. (And yes, I've been guilty of that in the past myself.) A good illustration from this week is this Steven Cook piece currently gaining traction. The body of the piece basically describes Turkish behavior that is consistent with its past independent stance, and even adds that for the most part U.S. and Turkish interests and agendas in the region align, even if the methods employed are not identical. But the piece's takeaway calls Turkey a strategic competitor, and the subheadline calls Turkey our new regional rival.* That is just farfetched, to say the least.

Turkey is the France of the Middle East. A friend, willing to speak its mind, and one not willing to sacrifice its own interests for ours. We should be used to that by now

 

[ashdoc]

turkey is no france.......turks are known to be amongst the most violent of races ,next only to the germans.....unlike the french.

and turkey is too poor ........it only important aspect being its brute military power ,which it has effectively used for centuries......

 

[civfanatic]

turkey is no france.......turks are known to be amongst the most violent of races ,next only to the germans.....unlike the french.

and turkey is too poor ........it only important aspect being its brute military power ,which it has effectively used for centuries......

Turkey is not poor, it has a GDP per capita four times that of India's ($12,000 vs. $3,000). This combined with its large population makes it one of the dominant economies in the Middle East, despite its lack of oil wealth.

And your assertion that France has not been violent in its history is laughable - read about the methods of French colonization in West Africa, Indochina, etc.

The simple fact is that Turkey is tired of being a mere sideshow in Middle East geopolitics and wants some of the limelight - it wants to present itself as a progressive leader of the Islamic world, and increase its influence in its backyard. Whether this bodes good or bad for India depends on how our diplomats approach this situation.

 

[ashdoc]

Turkey is not poor, it has a GDP per capita four times that of India's ($12,000 vs. $3,000). This combined with its large population makes it one of the dominant economies in the Middle East, despite its lack of oil wealth.

And your assertion that France has not been violent in its history is laughable - read about the methods of French colonization in West Africa, Indochina, etc.

The simple fact is that Turkey is tired of being a mere sideshow in Middle East geopolitics and wants some of the limelight - it wants to present itself as a progressive leader of the Islamic world, and increase its influence in its backyard. Whether this bodes good or bad for India depends on how our diplomats approach this situation.

GDP per capita 4 times that of india does not make anybody rich ..........and its turning towards the middle east is because it seems have realised that the european union is far from making it a full-flegged member ,considering the opposition of many EU countries to its entry........now that the front door is closed ,its has to turn to its backyard.........

this ' progressive ' leader of the islamic world may have brought commendable westernisation to people of turkish origin , but the kurdish minority ,which forms more than 20 percent of its population is treated with total harshness.........

as far as france is concerned ,it really does not belong to the top of the list on the violence scale.......yeah ,its colonization was more brutal than british colonization ,but so was the colonization of many other countries.......

 

[Tshering22]

Turkey is not poor, it has a GDP per capita four times that of India's ($12,000 vs. $3,000). This combined with its large population makes it one of the dominant economies in the Middle East, despite its lack of oil wealth.

And your assertion that France has not been violent in its history is laughable - read about the methods of French colonization in West Africa, Indochina, etc.

The simple fact is that Turkey is tired of being a mere sideshow in Middle East geopolitics and wants some of the limelight - it wants to present itself as a progressive leader of the Islamic world, and increase its influence in its backyard. Whether this bodes good or bad for India depends on how our diplomats approach this situation.

Dude, a high GDP doesn't essentially translate to high power. China's GDP is half and even 1/10th of many countries. It could still gobble ALL those big GDP countries combined in politics and military anyday. French colonization has been shrewd and tactical rather than brute military force, and I am aware of that. However, Turkey is far from being a progressive Islamic nation. Simply because its ruling AKP party has forgotten the founding principles for which Mustafa Kemal Ataturk worked his head off. Their father of nation is the only thing admirable in their country, other than which it has nothing but a violent history of massacring everything that came in their path to Ottoman Empire.

 

[Tshering22]

GDP per capita 4 times that of india does not make anybody rich ..........and its turning towards the middle east is because it seems have realised that the european union is far from making it a full-flegged member ,considering the opposition of many EU countries to its entry........now that the front door is closed ,its has to turn to its backyard.........

this ' progressive ' leader of the islamic world may have brought commendable westernisation to people of turkish origin , but the kurdish minority ,which forms more than 20 percent of its population is treated with total harshness.........

as far as france is concerned ,it really does not belong to the top of the list on the violence scale.......yeah ,its colonization was more brutal than british colonization ,but so was the colonization of many other countries.......

The PKK are the Maoist equivalent bunch of Communist terrorists in Turkey who have no sympathy or respect for lives. They have been as violent as our own Maoist terrorists and the only difference here is that Turkish government is sincere enough towards its people to attack and destroy these scumbags while our own GOI is corrupt, inefficient, cowardly, weak and selfish and has no resolve to fight and destroy these terrorist scumbags. Kurdish people are not as mistreated as shown by PKK which is a barbaric Communist terror cult in itself who survives on propaganda, lies and false words as do all the Communists around the world. Communism itself has an utter disregard for human life as it is evident from numerous Communist regimes around the world that have engaged in savage brutality with its own peoples. Hence to take the words of a Communist terror cult seriously is stupid.