November 29, 2015
A New Ottoman Empire?
Asli Aydintasbas
6/02/2009 @ 2:57PM
ISTANBUL — This week, Turkey assumed the presidency of the United Nation’s Security Council, and while that may just be a passing story in most countries, here it is a big deal.
“This is very important and a big responsibility for our country,” said Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu–and he should know. Davutoglu has been the chief architect of Turkey’s neo-imperial foreign policy that envisions a far greater role for this pro-western Islamic country than as an aspiring second-tier member of the European club.
No one was surprised last month when Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan appointed his longtime political adviser Davutoglu as the Foreign Minister. The soft-talking professor–who was also an adviser to President Abdullah Gul–has largely been responsible for reshaping Turkey’s foreign policy over the past six years, moving it away from its isolationist roots and toward a role as a self-declared regional power broker in the Middle East.
Turks love the spotlight that has come from efforts to mediate between Israelis and Syrians, act as peacekeepers in Lebanon and host high-profile world dignitaries. They got a kick out of seeing their globetrotting leader Erdogan in a face-off with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Davos.
The official television station TRT has recently started to refer to Turkey as a “global power.” These days, the book du jour in Turkish power circles is Stratfor founder George Friedman’s The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century . It predicts the rise of a hegemonic Turkish empire in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire.
All that talk may be premature, but not for Davutoglu.
Meeting the Turkish foreign minister, you would never guess that you are talking to one of the most powerful figures in the Middle East. Davutoglu is a short, even-tempered man in his fifties who talks, in fact nearly mumbles, with a relaxing half-smile that gives you the momentary hope that the world’s most vicious problems are actually not that difficult to solve. He is more avuncular than imposing, more monotonous than charismatic.
From Damascus to Tel Aviv, regional leaders have been talking to him as the best private channel to the decision-makers in Ankara–making him the most influential consigliore in the history of the modern republic. His book Strategic Depth is a must-read for diplomats coming to Turkey. He has been at the heart of every critical diplomatic initiative over the last few years–from lobbying to attain U.N. Security Council membership for Turkey to conducting secret Israeli-Syrian mediation efforts.
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