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CAN ISRAEL AND THE EU LIVE WITH TURKEY'S NEW OTTOMAN EMPIRE?
By Nathan Hegedus
The Faster Times
http://thefastertimes.com/bignews/2010/06/07/can-israel-and-the-eu-live-with-a-new-ottoman-empire/
June 7 2010
Israel-Turkey Relations Destined To Change In Wake of Gaza Flotilla
Attack
Most empires linger long in the souls of their successor states. The
conquered peoples hate; the conquerors long for lost glory. The
Ottoman Empire was grander and more glorious than most empires,
its cultural echoes still sounding from Budapest to Basra.
And now, in the wake of Israel's attack on the mostly Turkish Gaza aid
flotilla, the world is once again paying close attention to Turkey,
which for decades rejected the legacy of the Ottoman Empire, but -
through a combination of economic success and Islamic sympathies -
is now trying to once again be the "center power," the bridge between
the Middle East and Europe. From Sol Ozel in The Huffington Post:
The most clearly elucidated vision of Turkey's new interest-driven
activism comes from Ahmet Davutoglu, the current foreign minister. In
his view, Turkey's location at the center of what he calls the
Afro-Eurasian space -- where the great empires of history once reigned
-- enables it to rise to the status of a center power of the whole
region. By eliminating conflicts with its neighbors zero problems
Turkey will be able to consolidate its regional leadership and play
a key global role in the post-Cold War strategic environment.
Most of the American analysis has focused on Turkey's turn to Islam,
to the East so to speak. But this is too simplistic, something finally
addressed in a skeptical Washington Post article:
That has prompted worried speculation at home and abroad: Is Turkey
turning away from the West?
Turkey's Islamic-oriented government says no. And some analysts say
the question is too simplistic. With a growing economy and self-assured
leaders, this NATO member is emerging as a regional power with a more
independent foreign policy, they say.
"They want to be the big kid on the block," said Henri Barkey, a
Turkey expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in
Washington. "They have essentially a very inflated sense of their
own importance."
Turkey has dubbed its new foreign policy "zero problems with
neighbors," attempting to get along with countries like Iran, Armenia
and Syria. And what is more important to an empire, especially one
with softer power, than keeping the old inner provinces calm?
There is something liberating in this Turkish renewal, a proud country
done groveling before European economic masters, not wanting to be
known mostly for sending millions of emigrants to places like Germany.
But mixing the geopolitical with the religious, turning to Islam and
essentially away from the reforms and the tradition that helped Turkey
find its own voice, could be dangerous for everyone, something Askar
Askarov discusses in a long piece in FrontPageMag.com:
But behind the scenes, both the European political elite and the
Turkish leadership shared a similar objective: to keep Turkey away
from Europe and, as the AKP hoped, to integrate Turkey with the rest
of the Islamic community of nations. This way, the Europeans would
be free, despite their public statements, from a secret fear - an EU
with millions of Turks. In its turn, the AKP would get an eastward
looking Turkey with autocratic tendencies and Islamist orientation.
Ironically, while the European Union may have never wanted Turkey,
the reforms it required to even play this shadow game have transformed
Turkey into an economic powerhouse with a healthier civil society no
longer oppressed by the military. And finally, the all too apparent
EU rejection has turned both the Turkish elite and population back to
the idea of the "center power," one with the potential to be far more
important to world affairs than the chaotic, increasingly splintered
EU itself.
The Ottoman Empire broke in Europe, at the gates of Vienna and in
a steady loss of its Balkan provinces. And, ironically, it was in
Europe where the the old Islamic feelings of empire truly reemerged.
The organization that led the Gaza aid flotilla, the Foundation
for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), was
founded during the war in Bosnia in the early 1990s, as Croat and
Serb Christians slaughtered Bosnian Muslims, an island of Islam left
in the European mountains when the Ottoman Empire retreated.
A similar awakening happened during the war in Gaza in 2008. The
Turks have finally forgotten the Arab revolts that helped destroy the
Ottoman Empire, and they do not need the West and NATO like they did
during the Cold War to fend off the Soviet Union.
It remains to be seen whether Turkey has come far enough to be a
stabilizing, democratic influence in the Middle East or the object
of Askarov's nightmare. So where does all this leave Israel? With
one less friend in the world and a powerful assertive empire in
the making to the north. Compare this far reaching Turkish vision
with the more immediate concerns of Egypt, which supports the Gaza
blockade in a simplistic effort to thwart Hamas and fend off its own
Islamicist parties.
Not a good spot.
From: A. Papazian
By Nathan Hegedus
The Faster Times
http://thefastertimes.com/bignews/2010/06/07/can-israel-and-the-eu-live-with-a-new-ottoman-empire/
June 7 2010
Israel-Turkey Relations Destined To Change In Wake of Gaza Flotilla
Attack
Most empires linger long in the souls of their successor states. The
conquered peoples hate; the conquerors long for lost glory. The
Ottoman Empire was grander and more glorious than most empires,
its cultural echoes still sounding from Budapest to Basra.
And now, in the wake of Israel's attack on the mostly Turkish Gaza aid
flotilla, the world is once again paying close attention to Turkey,
which for decades rejected the legacy of the Ottoman Empire, but -
through a combination of economic success and Islamic sympathies -
is now trying to once again be the "center power," the bridge between
the Middle East and Europe. From Sol Ozel in The Huffington Post:
The most clearly elucidated vision of Turkey's new interest-driven
activism comes from Ahmet Davutoglu, the current foreign minister. In
his view, Turkey's location at the center of what he calls the
Afro-Eurasian space -- where the great empires of history once reigned
-- enables it to rise to the status of a center power of the whole
region. By eliminating conflicts with its neighbors zero problems
Turkey will be able to consolidate its regional leadership and play
a key global role in the post-Cold War strategic environment.
Most of the American analysis has focused on Turkey's turn to Islam,
to the East so to speak. But this is too simplistic, something finally
addressed in a skeptical Washington Post article:
That has prompted worried speculation at home and abroad: Is Turkey
turning away from the West?
Turkey's Islamic-oriented government says no. And some analysts say
the question is too simplistic. With a growing economy and self-assured
leaders, this NATO member is emerging as a regional power with a more
independent foreign policy, they say.
"They want to be the big kid on the block," said Henri Barkey, a
Turkey expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in
Washington. "They have essentially a very inflated sense of their
own importance."
Turkey has dubbed its new foreign policy "zero problems with
neighbors," attempting to get along with countries like Iran, Armenia
and Syria. And what is more important to an empire, especially one
with softer power, than keeping the old inner provinces calm?
There is something liberating in this Turkish renewal, a proud country
done groveling before European economic masters, not wanting to be
known mostly for sending millions of emigrants to places like Germany.
But mixing the geopolitical with the religious, turning to Islam and
essentially away from the reforms and the tradition that helped Turkey
find its own voice, could be dangerous for everyone, something Askar
Askarov discusses in a long piece in FrontPageMag.com:
But behind the scenes, both the European political elite and the
Turkish leadership shared a similar objective: to keep Turkey away
from Europe and, as the AKP hoped, to integrate Turkey with the rest
of the Islamic community of nations. This way, the Europeans would
be free, despite their public statements, from a secret fear - an EU
with millions of Turks. In its turn, the AKP would get an eastward
looking Turkey with autocratic tendencies and Islamist orientation.
Ironically, while the European Union may have never wanted Turkey,
the reforms it required to even play this shadow game have transformed
Turkey into an economic powerhouse with a healthier civil society no
longer oppressed by the military. And finally, the all too apparent
EU rejection has turned both the Turkish elite and population back to
the idea of the "center power," one with the potential to be far more
important to world affairs than the chaotic, increasingly splintered
EU itself.
The Ottoman Empire broke in Europe, at the gates of Vienna and in
a steady loss of its Balkan provinces. And, ironically, it was in
Europe where the the old Islamic feelings of empire truly reemerged.
The organization that led the Gaza aid flotilla, the Foundation
for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), was
founded during the war in Bosnia in the early 1990s, as Croat and
Serb Christians slaughtered Bosnian Muslims, an island of Islam left
in the European mountains when the Ottoman Empire retreated.
A similar awakening happened during the war in Gaza in 2008. The
Turks have finally forgotten the Arab revolts that helped destroy the
Ottoman Empire, and they do not need the West and NATO like they did
during the Cold War to fend off the Soviet Union.
It remains to be seen whether Turkey has come far enough to be a
stabilizing, democratic influence in the Middle East or the object
of Askarov's nightmare. So where does all this leave Israel? With
one less friend in the world and a powerful assertive empire in
the making to the north. Compare this far reaching Turkish vision
with the more immediate concerns of Egypt, which supports the Gaza
blockade in a simplistic effort to thwart Hamas and fend off its own
Islamicist parties.
Not a good spot.
From: A. Papazian