An inconvenient truth

Sarkozy and Merkel have yet to see what Obama has already understood. Turkey's biggest asset is its geopolitical role, and it is using it intelligently, writes The Guardian.

The Guardian

It is an inconvenient truth that the two most influential countries in the Middle East are both non-Arab — Iran and Turkey. But some hope must lie in the fact that Barack Obama ... chose to make Turkey the focus of an attempt to bridge the gulf between Islam and the west. … [T]o choose the Turkish parliament as the venue to say that his country is not and never will be at war with Islam is the mark of a man who is showing increasing confidence on the world stage.

The French president and the German chancellor, who have bolted the door to Europe, have dropped the ball on Turkey. They have yet to see what Mr Obama has already understood. Turkey's biggest asset is its geopolitical role, and it is using it intelligently. The president, Abdullah Gul, has gone to Armenia on the first visit by a Turkish leader in the two nations' bitter history. Ankara is also trying to transform its relationship with Iraqi Kurds. Turkey mediated indirect talks between Syria and Israel, and when the prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed off the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, telling the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, that he was killing people in Gaza, Turkish flags went up all over Palestine. …

Turkey is not a model country, any more than any other is. But it … undermines the western notion that Islam and modernity are somehow fundamentally incompatible, and it does have useful regional contacts. Next stop Iran.