Turkey's Predicament - How to Have a Future in Spite of Its Past

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Jul 29, 2011 at 18:19

In taking some time to assimilate the thoughts you have presented here and reviewing the contrasting opinions, in the urban and intellectual response you provided we see a concerted effort to bring a sense of a differing view of Turkey, one that more closely reminds some of us of the Turkey Attatürk thought to give to his people, yet not fully making a clean break of its longtime Islamic influences. Therein lies the conundrum, that for all of the assertion promulgated here, that: " Turkey is rapidly democratizing, economically growing, and wants to cooperate with all other countries. Democratization is not an event but a process. It takes time and the road is bumpy…..", there are the still unanswered questions of just exactly what Turkey is up to when the democratic processes are made subject to the overwhelming Muslim influences.

Others of Turkish extraction have made it clear: Turkey is an upcoming force to be reckoned with. Even if the overtly Islamic influences are set aside for a moment of discussion, they are immediately re-infused for the associations that Turkey has deemed necessary in order to be able to function in the Middle East with those countries of Muslim bias and expectations. The Western entities that once entertained the idea of closer cooperation with Turkey held higher expectations when Turkey seemed more desirous of a secular relationship, something now lost with the political intrigues that kept a certain sense of distrust from either side in place. The allegations of past misdeeds definitely did not help either.

Any pessimism about the future in the Middle East and Turkey's part in the processes we see occurring appear to stem from the West's inability to gain any trust from Turkey. The American Secretary of State's visit there seemed to send a message that cooperation was sought after; but in the final analysis, what was really achieved other than sending a conflicting message that if things worsened for Turkey or other states in the region, what the American posture might be short of a Libyan style intervention remains to be seen. In any event, any intervention that purportedly puts favoritism in the wrong place is not going to end well, something it appears Turkey may not be all that well prepared for depending upon what side is taken.

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