The Middle East and Central Asia have been talking about it for a long, long time. And now the West including Turkey’s European neighbours and NATO allies have been forced to sit up and take note of the change happening in their backyard after Ankara helped broker the Iran nuclear deal with other two leading members of the developing world or emerging new economies, Brazil and India.
Western media is grudgingly acknowledging the stunning diplomatic coup that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has delivered on uranium enrichment with Turkey and Brazil with Prime Minister Erdogan and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil (and India’s Foreign Minister S M Krishna) turning up for the ceremony. However, Ahmadinejad couldn’t have done it without the crucial help and involvement of Prime Minister Erdogan. In fact, it’s Turkish PM’s involvement that may have encouraged America’s next door neighbour Brazil and close friend India to come on board.
Again if the world hasn’t dismissed the whole deal as yet another antic of the irrepressible Ahmadinejad and is seriously debating the proposal despite the US opposition and the absurd talk of more sanctions, the credit should go to Turkey’s charismatic leadership.
Clearly, Turkey has arrived back on world stage and with a bang. If last week it was helping Iran’s Ayatollahs avoid yet another confrontation with the West, this week it’s hosting a flotilla of aid boats to help the helpless Palestinians imprisoned in Gaza despite Ankara’s historically close ties to Israel. Last year, Erdogan walked out of the World Economic Forum in Davos in a huff after a lashing he administered to Shimon Peres for Israel’s murderous onslaught on Gaza.
Today, under the AKP, known for its Islamic ideological roots, Turkey is not just on the path to reclaiming its past glory when it ruled the greater Middle East and parts of Asia and Europe under the Ottomans but it is also in the process of rediscovering its political and economic clout. Turkey’s economy hasn’t been in a stronger state of health in nearly a century, which is evident in the country’s constantly expanding investments in neighbouring Central Asian and Middle East countries. This economic well being of the nation has strengthened Erdogan’s hands and has even helped him break the stranglehold of the powerful Kemalist generals and ?military establishment.
Turkey’s arrival on world stage, let’s hope, bodes well for peace and stability in the Middle East and the larger world. The involvement of a country that has had close cultural, religious and historical relations with the Middle East will hopefully balance the excessive intervention of Western powers ?in the region.
US President Barack Obama who has long promoted the cause of peace and dialogue between the West and Islam should encourage Turkey and make use of its growing clout to build bridges with the Islamic world. Washington should give time and opportunity to let the Iran deal brokered by Turkey work. Punitive action against Iran helps no one except the hawks on both sides.
Courtesy: Khaleej Times