Thursday, November 17, 2011

Turkey's return to the Middle





As you read the Ottoman Empire from the outside to the inside, as well as read Turkey «AK» state «Ottoman new», but diplomacy and soft speech and means of pressure and the impact of more flexible and sophisticated simulation of the era, evoking «legacy of great power and the redefinition of the interests of the country's national and strategic, leading to need to look at Turkey is a major regional power moving its diplomacy active in several directions centered on the growing involvement in the affairs of the Middle East on the basis of rapprochement with the Arabs and Muslims », according to a researcher and political analyst and strategic Michel Nawfal, author of the book« return Turkey to the east .. New directions for Turkish policy »(*) * which deserves special gesture on the occasion of its release a few days ago in Beirut.

Turkey has always served, and the Empire State, which Almterbah above the intersections of history and geography and methods of transportation, the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East, a site of strategic importance is extremely sensitive to both the U.S. and Europe and the Arab world as well. And here is today led by «muezzin Istanbul» Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become a magnet for the world's attention repeatedly, specifically the last two decades, most of them in the war years of the cold days was a bastion of efforts to contain the Soviet Union, since the «found itself in the historical period last compelled to be amended and the evolution of orientation of foreign policy as a result of changes in the world since the end of the Cold War », The hand« to »Islam liberal an active and influential and participant and the owner of the vision and the project, or embrace the internal dialogue increasingly dynamic and is based to the categories of political reform and out of the bondage past, and the community Madani confirmed the same day after day in the face of entrenched the central state, and then the economy is growing dynamically occupy a place among the twenty major economies in the world.

Here lies the importance of the book «return Turkey to the East», with monitoring of the early crystallization of a new regional order in the Middle East, it is clear that it is not an Arab purely in the geopolitics of the region, comes in the vanguard role of the Turkish rookie, have to re-read the «new trends of Turkish policy» in a new way outside the framework of ideologies and prejudices of the past decade and, for history is being made, but he does not deny or Aosrh. Turkey has controlled the region, it is true, but what was once an example and have, therefore, we find that «succession» Arab Muslim has been the form of awareness and practice, even among the Turks.

Turkey today, and more importantly, do not expose the sample Al Othman, no one wants it already appears that the model of the relationship of a renewed and positive with its Arab and Islamic Matova on Mqarbadtha outstanding in the areas of development, economy, democracy and the relationship of religion and state, an ambitious and attractive, and on the basis of this and because of it is becoming increasingly important to detect the experience of this country in the form of academic and neutral, which feature the book Novell supervisor for the Middle East at the interactions Arab Turkey and Iran, who carried his book title compound and was documented accurately make, on Dzalth (151 pages), a reference intensive includes indexes for countries and cities, regions and peoples and the vocabulary and concepts and to persons and bodies, currents and destinations, parties and bibliography, resources, and last of the maps annexed by the book.

Introducing titled «cleared a» in Novell Key conclusions of the thesis of the book that was distributed later on the five chapters is «Turkey and the rise of the Turkic world» and «movement synthesis Turkish-Islamic» and «Forward Turkish politics» and «Iraq in the concept of neo-Ottoman» and «Turkish approach to the Middle East». Therefore, having due the beginnings of fundamental change in Turkish politics to 1980, «when the state began to open the doors to the global economic system fired the movement of the market and liberalized foreign trade regime and the change in the concept of industrialization in the first stage in the strategic shift at the level of state theory», points out that «the the scope of foreign policy continued to confirm the affiliation of Turkey to the western world, especially the request of belonging to the European family as he was being closer economic and trade ties with the Arab world and Islamic world. And Turkey has been able to compensate for diminished value of the strategic leaders of the Western world into the late eighties as a result of mutations that resulted in the collapse of communist regimes in Europe and the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

He continues, «came the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 to restore the West is keen to remind its supply of oil on the importance of Ankara's vital to security. On the other hand opened up new prospects for diplomacy, Turkish as a result of complete disintegration of the Soviet Union and its implications in the regions of the Caucasus and Central Asia, where living people have roots in common with the Turks, Anatolia has been recognized already the emergence of a world Turki was out of the accounts of official view », he says,« that this world includes six republics in addition to an independent Tatarstan within the Russian Federation and the Turkish minorities in the Balkans, Iraq, Iran and China, which means that the new responsibilities are consequences of the political class and civil society in Turkey ».

He said that with the beginning of 1992 became Turkey «a pole attraction in the area of ​​geopolitical and broad stretches from the Balkans in the west to borders of China in the east and gained the Turkish foreign policy new dimensions imposed on Ankara to act as a vehicle to push the« Turkish Republics »the newly independent to the bosom of the global system has been achieved already the year 1992 ». He believed that luxury - the proportion of the system of Kemal Ataturk - the result of all this «overcome limitations of time like the totalitarian ideologies collapsed in the former Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe. Also found that the new official ideology adopted by the Turkish military before progress on the implementation of the 1980 coup raise the banner of luxury and practical based on the concept of a national culture rooted in the Islamic religion ».

Leap wolf Anatolia these reflect, then, efforts to Ankara persistent qualified for the great role they play in the field of Islamic, Asian and international, having limited its role during the Cold War and a long period of the twentieth century, the representation of secularism in the form the maximum state and role, and to serve the strategic interests of U.S. and European Parallel to the absence of ambiguous neighborhood affected by the Arab and influential. After years of the arrival of the Islamists of Hezbollah «Justice and Development» PKP led Erdogan to power (2002), there were major developments in Anatolia, Valllerh crumbling became the currency of one of the most powerful economic countries, and the Kurdish question, which failed governments in dealing with it, has become the material for dialogue preceded initiatives reflect the good intentions such as restoring account of the names of streets and the symbols of Kurdish cultural was blurred long military rule, and reconciliation Turkish - Armenian has taken important steps, in addition to this, the presence of Turkey Bdiblomasetha active trends in balanced or contradictory at times, in all points of regional tension, as an active mediator is successful, the by adopting a policy of seeking to gain access to the case of «zero problems with all neighboring countries», without eliminating it as a key member of NATO, and a military post with troops in Afghanistan. The animosity with Syria over the territory of Iskenderun are translated into influence in this country, while the strategic relationship with Israel gradually turn to the relationship between acceptable mediator. As for Turkey's refusal to cooperate with the United States in preparation for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was «a detector of the trends of the new Turkish foreign policy», according to Novell.

The importance of this book as a read great insight into the transformation of Turkey since the two and a half decade, down to how it ended as a pivotal country in the entire region, and perhaps the most important thing in the book in terms of documentary record time of historical events important on the subject of research the author has cited, under the title of «landmarks chronology »in which brief addresses from a specific date is the ninth century AD, when he referred to the historical landmark that is« a massive flow of recruits Turk in the service of the Abbasid Caliph »and the end of another milestone is entitled« 10/06/2004: European Commission issued its report on the situation in view of the Turkish in the Copenhagen criteria for membership and considers that Turkey sufficiently respected democratic norms specified in the European Union ». All this makes the book a key material for researchers and those interested in the affairs of Turkey and observers of public affairs in the region and the experiences of leading it.