Turkey: A Natural Bridge and Mediator to the World?
Culture affects politics. How a country perceives itself, its heritage and how it goes about its business in the world, affect whether it contributes to chaos and disorder or a more coherent world.
Turkey is one such nation. Its culture, marked partly by its history, geographical position and relationship to its neighbours, offers it a unique political opportunity that is enjoyed by very few countries.
Turkey straddles continents and is a bridge between East and West. It is at once part of the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus, and has deep links to the Turkic-speaking peoples across Central Asia all the way to China. As a result, Turkey’s true role and calling is as a natural mediator to the region and wider world.
It has one of the largest diplomatic corps in the world and over recent years has developed an international global business presence including through the immense network of Turkish Airlines and the construction sector. As a result, it also has growing relations with Africa and elsewhere. The influence of its soap operas, many of them harkening back to the Ottoman golden age, cannot be underestimated in the Arab world, and more recently on Netflix.
Turkey also has a rich cultural history and heritage. As the core inheritor of the former multi-ethnic and multi-lingual Ottoman Empire, its influence had been felt for five centuries from Algeria to Azerbaijan. Most importantly, being both an Islamic and a secular Western society, Ankara has clout in both circles, but also an ability, if it chooses, to hone a more nuanced worldview.
Yet this has not been the case in recent years. As with many other countries, the blinds of ideology or the sheer drive for power and self-interest have created circumstances of intense rivalry and confusion. Excessive stridency and problematic military incursions currently prevail, turning its erstwhile guiding policy of “zero problems with neighbours,” sadly, into its opposite. Turkey is viewed today more as a problem than a problem solver: from its entanglements in Syria, Azerbaijan, Libya, Iraq and the Eastern Mediterranean, to its role in NATO, and its relations with Russia and with the EU.
All countries pursue their interests, sometimes aggressively. In today’s increasingly confused and fragmented international environment, it is understandable why Turkey is attached to its current policies. They have perceived benefits for domestic politics, the economy, national self-esteem and security, and the quest for renewed Turkish grandeur.
However, given its considerable assets described above, and the depth of its cultural heritage, can Turkey not make an important shift? In a world of disorder, it is easiest to contribute to further chaos, in the false hope that by doing so, one is somehow gaining, or at least not being taken advantage of in a dog-eat-dog world.
However, a large picture view suggests that Turkey’s contribution to disorder is not only unbeneficial to the country, but also prevents, it every day, from pursuing its natural vocation. This would require a leadership cadre—business, political and cultural—that is more interested in healthy relations between Turkey and the world than in political and personal gain.
Such change can be the result of a nexus between more enlightened political leadership, often unexpected external events, and domestic surprises. It can also be a groundswell that builds up over time from enough relevant people being captivated by a certain positive pattern.
If there was ever a time for Turkey to serve as a global intermediary among nations, rather than a political loner defiantly grasping for power to which it feels entitled, it is today. That ability, which is a natural and constructive consequence of its cultural blend, its imperial past and its reality as a geographic bridge, can be put to good use to reconcile differences in its own society, and would make it a useful example to a polarized world.
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