Turkey chooses a new side?

The United States' position in the Middle East may have taken a turn for the worse, with very little press coverage here at home. There's been an apparent change in Turkey's position toward the U.S. and the west. For some years, Turkey has been an officially secular society and government. Turkey officially supported Western interests in the region. They're a member of NATO. They even had several treaties with Israel.

Recently Turkey has been leaning more and more toward an Islamic state and society. Recent elections have favored pro-Islamic state candidates. The government has had to make some concessions away from secularism. But there's still officially on good terms with the U.S. and the west, but that might only be skin-deep. Recently, Turkey sided openly with other Muslim states, including Syria and Iran, in the Israel - Palestinian confrontation in Gaza. And Turkey has been getting more and more friendly with those Islamic states, as evidenced by recent meetings between President Assad and Prime Minister Erdogan. An official shift in Turkey's position would be a devasting blow for U.S. strategic interests in the Middle East. U.S. military forces depend on Turkish support and Turkish facilities for operations in the area.

I don't know whether this is a consequence of Turkey's repeated rejections from the European Union, perhaps coupled with western support for Kurds, or maybe it was just inevitable that Turkey would return to its Islamic heritage. My opinion is that it was inevitable. Kemal Ataturk is long since dead and gone, and anybody left who was living while he was still in power were just little children at the time. His influence on Turkish thought has long been waning. And so it's no surprise that Islam, which has been the dominant religion in Turkey for centuries, would come seeping back to the surface. Maybe "bubbling" would be a better turn of words.

It doesn't look too good.

And that's not even taking into account Russia, who's been getting cozy with Iran. Things could get pretty interesting for our new President.

some background:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...as-and-turkey/
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/o...3677.asp?scr=1
http://hurarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/gost...63&yazarid=298 (scroll down to bottom)
http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_...&lang=eng_news
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...cle%2FShowFull
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/58...ast-peace.html

Perhaps you missed the point where the U.S. depends on Turkey for its military operations in the Middle East. If Turkey were to revoke its support for U.S. military operations, it would have a huge impact on the flexibility. Turkey allows use of some of its airfields, for example. Even worse, consider the consequences if our military aircraft were denied permission to overfly Turkey. Turkey forms a natural corridor between Europe and the Middle East. Take away Turkey, and you take away the northern approaches to practically anywhere in the Middle East. Russia isn't going to allow our aircraft to transit through their airspace. You become dependent on the southern approaches, which is mostly Saudi Arabia. And they've grown noticeable cool to our military's use of their facilities as well. Turkey siding with Syria and Iran would be a huge setback from a geo-political standpoint.

And Turkey is friendly with Egypt. That would put pressure on Egypt to join the party. The U.S. isn't very popular in the Middle East. If we lose the support of Turkey, then Egypt could go; perhaps Saudi Arabia, then Pakistan. Then we pull out of Iraq and Iraq goes. Then those several thousand American lives lost in Iraq will all have been wasted. If they haven't been already. Look at the big picture.

I made no assumption in general that "voting in religious people" will change a country's whole government. But in the case of Turkey, that's exactly what will happen. I didn't make any link in my post with any change in the U.S., nor did I intend to. The change, in Turkey, as it affects the U.S., is in how it affects U.S. presence in the region. I have no idea where you came up with that other part.

Ha ha Don't give me any credit .... there was this guy, let's call him "Zeke" shall we, who called this a very long time ago.

Yes, and Putin's getting irate about it. So, you suppose that's a factor in Turkey's turn away from Europe and toward the Middle East? Now, it's getting REALLY interesting, if you've been following this Zeke fella.

I'd guess that was his plan all along.

I found it interesting that Sec State Clinton was in Turkey recently, and announced a trip there by Pres. Obama. It sounds like we're going to try to patch things up and sway them to stick with us. Good move. We need friends in the region. I hope Obama can work some of his charismatic charm on them.