Turkey's Strategic Model: Myths and Realities

Mavi Boncuk |

Washington Quarterly Vol. 27, Issue 3 - Summer 2004


Turkey's Strategic Model: Myths and Realities
Graham E. Fuller

pp. 51 - 64

The classic Western image of Turkey as a secular model to all Muslims has been misleading. The good news is that Turkey is in fact now becoming a genuine model, although one of a different form, that finally offers a degree of genuine appeal to the region.

From the first page:
In the West, the classic image of Turkey has long been misleading: a secular country, a democracy, an unshakeable friend of the United States, a nation whose strategic outlook conforms with U.S. interests in the region … a model to all Muslims. During the past 50 years, most of these descriptions have not corresponded to reality, presenting mainly a comforting but unexamined myth.

If the Western version of Turkey’s past is a myth, however, the good news is that today’s Turkey, based on the remarkable realities of its evolution during recent years, is in fact now becoming a genuine model that finally offers a degree of genuine appeal to the region. The new model is based on serious utilization of democratic process; a willingness to act not just as a Western power but as an Eastern power as well; a greater exercise of national sovereignty supported by the people; a greater independence of action that no longer clings insecurely to the United States or any other power in implementing its foreign policies; considerable progress toward the solution of a burning internal ethnic minority (the Kurdish) issue; and a demonstrated capability to resolve the leading challenge to the Muslim world today: the management and political integration of Islam. This newer model is much better for Turkey, better for the region, and better for Europe and the world, even if some in Washington still hope to preserve the mythical, old Turkish model. The key areas of change in Turkey that will drive the country’s strategic outlook and policies over the next decade are Islam, prickly Turkish nationalism, its entry into the European Union, its role as a Middle Eastern state and as a multiethnic state, and its ties with the United States.