Hurriyet has published an article by Burak Bekdil headlined 'The Ottomans are back! (and so are the Safavids...).' "Last year, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu spoke of “a common history and a common future that Turkey and Egypt share.” In his earlier speeches, Professor Davutoğlu had spoken of “a very long, common history shared by Turkey and Iran.” Mr. Davutoğlu had also asserted that “a common destiny, a common history and a common future” were the slogan of Turkey and Syria. In other remarks, Mr. Davutoğlu had spoken of “a common history, a common destiny and a common future, as well as cooperation, between Turkey and Greece,” and “a common history and a common future” with the Balkans and Benghazi," the article begins.
"Judging from where relations between Turkey and all those lands with which it has a common past and a common future stand, it may be a bad omen that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told the Old Continent in a recent speech in Germany: “We wholeheartedly believe that Turkey and the EU share a common future,” Bekdil writes.
"All that boringly repetitive rhetoric reflects a powerful desire to build a new world order in which: a) Turkey is not only a regional superpower but also has a seat and vote in a restructured United Nations Security Council; b) It also rules former Ottoman territories not by the force of sword this time but by “softer” (not necessarily soft) power; c) It influences both regional and global politics by a bizarre blend of pragmatism and the supremacy of Turkish Sunni Islam," he believes.
"Apparently, the more Mr. Davutoğlu’s dreams of a new world order hit the walls of regional and global realities, the more he (and the prime minister) gets nervous. Every new day that reminds him that Turkey may in fact be much less powerful than he believes or hopes, he blames failures on the “old world order.” Hence, there is an urgent need for a new one," the article reads.
"The Ottomans may be back, and there are no signs of Inquisitors or Crusaders making a comeback. But the jihadists and Safavids are also back. Messrs Erdoğan and Davutoğlu, you better watch out for the next Persian gambit," the author concludes.
