Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009<\/p>\n
By DOMINIQUE MOISI<\/strong><\/p>\n Dominique Moisi is a visiting professor at Harvard University and the CAMBRIDGE, Mass.\u00a0 “Who lost Turkey?” That question, often raised in And the Turkish question matters greatly, because it touches on some If Turkey has indeed been “lost,” those responsible include the All of these events have disturbed and disoriented Turkey, and are Of course, Turkey’s secular, pro-Western elites may still consider the The Turkish question is, of course, complex. Turkey’s geography is At the beginning of the 21st century, when dialogue with the Islamic In the question of Turkish accession to the EU, the journey matters The EU desperately needs a strategic and diplomatic partner that can Of course, to want Turkey “in” is an act of will, if not an act of Israel is not in the European Union, but it, too, is in great danger It is too early to speak of Obama’s policy toward Turkey; suffice it Turkey, too shares some of the responsibility for this mounting Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009 By DOMINIQUE MOISI Dominique Moisi is a visiting professor at Harvard University and the author of “The Geopolitics of Emotions.” \u00a9 2009 Project Syndicate CAMBRIDGE, Mass.\u00a0 “Who lost Turkey?” That question, often raised in the past, has been heating up in the aftermath of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s emotional outburst […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":776961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,835,89],"tags":[1167],"class_list":["post-9567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eu-members","category-europe","category-turkey","tag-davo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nauthor of “The Geopolitics of Emotions.” \u00a9 2009 Project Syndicate<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nthe past, has been heating up in the aftermath of Prime Minister Recep
\nTayyip Erdogan’s emotional outburst during the recent World Economic
\nForum 2009 in Davos, when he abruptly left a panel he was sharing with
\nIsraeli President Shimon Peres.<\/p>\n
\nof the most unstable and unsettling of the world’s diplomatic disputes.<\/p>\n
\nEuropean Union, the United States, Israel and Turkey itself. The EU’s
\ngrowing reservations about Turkey’s membership have been expressed
\nunambiguously by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. In the U.S., former
\nPresident George W. Bush gets some of the blame because of the war in
\nIraq. Israel, too, has played its part in Turkey’s alienation from the
\nWest, as a result of the Lebanon war of 2006 and its recent military
\noperations in Gaza.<\/p>\n
\nmagnified by the domestic impact of worst global economic crisis since
\nthe 1930s.<\/p>\n
\nEU and the U.S. important, if not indispensable, allies and partners,
\nand they may consider Islamic fundamentalism, Hamas, Hezbollah and
\nIran real or at least potential threats. Yet they are also convinced
\nthat Europe has behaved improperly toward Turkey, through a
\ncombination of short-term populist reflexes and the absence of a
\nlong-term strategic vision.<\/p>\n
\npredominantly Asian, Turkey’s emotions are increasingly Middle
\nEastern, i.e., Muslim on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and yet
\nTurkey’s elites remain resolutely pro-Western and pro-European. But
\nfor how long?<\/p>\n
\nworld is one of the Western world’s key challenges, Europe would
\ncommit a historic strategic blunder if it were to close its doors to
\nTurkey. To do so would push back the inheritors of the Ottoman Empire
\nback onto an Asian, Muslim and Middle Eastern historical trajectory.<\/p>\n
\nmore than the destination. The reforms that Turkey has already
\nimplemented in a very short period of time, thanks to its EU candidate
\nstatus, are impressive. Should we in Europe really put at risk that
\nprogress by expressing an all-too-audible “no”?<\/p>\n
\nsignificantly reinforce its clout in the Middle East. Europe also
\nneeds the dynamism of a youthful Turkey. Above all, it needs the
\nmessage of reconciliation sent to Islam that Turkey’s entrance into
\nthe union would represent.<\/p>\n
\nfaith that is in many ways counterintuitive. Most Europeans do not
\nperceive Turkey as a “European Other” but as a “non-European Other.”
\nEven in Istanbul, the most Westernized of Turkish cities, as soon as
\none leaves the main arteries, one seems to be immersed in a Middle
\nEastern or Asian culture.<\/p>\n
\nof losing Turkey. Far from reinforcing Israel’s security, its last two
\nmilitary adventures, in Lebanon and now in Gaza, have caused further
\nself-isolation and loss of world sympathy. Nowhere has this phenomenon
\nbeen stronger than in Turkey, where those military escapades have
\nstrained the two countries’ strategic alliance almost to the breaking
\npoint.<\/p>\n
\nto say that in his willingness to open a respectful dialogue with
\nIslam, he is the only Western leader to move in the right direction.
\nBut can positive American gestures toward Turkey, a key NATO member,
\nbe sufficient to offset Israel’s insensitive, if not reckless,
\npolicies? The answer is unclear.<\/p>\n
\nprocess of estrangement. Erdogan’s behavior in Davos was, at the very
\nleast, irresponsible. He may have gained popularity back home, but in
\ntoday’s difficult economic times, the temptations of cheap populism
\nare more dangerous than ever. One does not play lightly with matches
\nnext to a pile of dry wood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"