As it takes firmer ground on the international stage, Turkey is still exploring the essence of what it wants its identity to be, writes Amani Maged in Istanbul Almost everywhere you go in Istanbul you encounter the Israeli assault against the Freedom Flotilla. Not surprisingly, this central concern among the Turkish has also occasioned numerous academic forums on the nature of Turkish identity. Is Turkey a European or an Asian state? Is it an Islamic or a secular one? Is it a part of the Western world, in terms of culture and institutions, such as NATO? Or does it belong to the East and its culture and civilisation? Does Turkey need to join the EU or does it need to expand its role in the Middle East? Turkish analyst Ali Anghi told Al-Ahram Weekly that his country has been engaged in a search for itself and its identity for many years. He offered a vivid illustration of the problem. When you enter a Turkish graveyard you find all engravings in Arabic script. When you re-enter the world of the living, everything is written in the Latin alphabet. "This is the crux of the dilemma," he said. "There is a conflict between Turkey with its Islamic culture and civilisational heritage, and the Turkey that wants to live in the framework of the Western project, complete with its institutions, culture and even its alphabet." Heesen Touran, another Turkish intellectual, puts the question in another perspective: "We have worked extremely hard to gain admission to the EU. We have succeeded in meeting all the criteria on democracy and the economy. In fact, Turkey is a hundred times better than some of those East European countries in terms of civil liberties, economic performance and even regional weight. Also, Turkey plays a vital and effective role in NATO. Yet, in spite of all this, Turkey has been completely rejected by the EU, which suggests that that bloc intends to remain a 'club for Christian nations', as one EU leader put it." In Touran's opinion, his country's interests no longer reside in Europe but rather in Turkey's Islamic, Arab and regional hinterland. He also observed that the US is increasingly concerned that Europe's attitude towards Turkey will drive Ankara closer to such countries as Iran and Syria, for which reason Washington has been pushing for Turkey's accession to the EU. There has, indeed, been an upsurge in pressure from Washington and from within Europe to promote Turkey's EU membership. There is a growing apprehension among some circles in the West that the alternative is Turkey's accession into an "axis of evil" (likely to include Iran). They are particularly disturbed by certain statements issued by Prime Minister Erdogan recently as well as reports that he has issued an invitation to Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah to visit Turkey, especially given that such developments are coming at a time when Turkish-Israeli relations have hit their lowest ebb ever. Identity matters are not the only focal points of Turkish academic seminars these days. Another crucial question is whether the Turkish-Iranian relationship is driven by rivalry over spheres of influence or by a convergence of interests. Journalist Ipraheem Akbab believes that the guiding philosophy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (JDP) is to be found in Ahmet Davutoglu's "Zero-Problems" theory. Discussed in several of the works Davutoglu produced in his previous capacity as a professor of political science and international relations, the theory caught the attention of Prime Minister Erdogan several years ago. Subsequently, he brought Davutoglu onboard, initially as an advisor and then as his foreign minister, in order to put his theory into practice. Essentially "Zero-Problems" theory espouses putting an end to all major difficulties between Turkey and its neighbours and historical adversaries, in the hope of gradually reducing the level of Turkey's problems abroad to zero, and so as to reset its relations with others on a footing of mutually beneficent cooperation and good will. The process of resetting is, perhaps, most striking with Syria. Whereas at one point the rocky relationship between these two countries verged on a declaration of war, they now are experiencing unprecedented levels of political and economic cooperation. The theory has also been applied successfully to two of Turkey's long- standing enemies -- Armenia and Greece. After long decades of animosity and suspicion, not only have Ankara and Athens established increasingly close neighbourly relations, but also Turkey has recently offered financial and economic aid to help Greece weather its current economic crisis. Today, according to Ipraheem Akbab, "Zero-Problems" is being put to work in Turkey's relationship with Iran. The volume of trade between the two countries now exceeds $20 billion and is expected to increase exponentially. Erdogan has no desire to see this relationship sour into an adversarial one. Rather, he hopes to keep it within the bounds of an amicable rivalry that works to the advantage of both countries. In this connection, some have wondered whether the rise in Turkey's regional profile as the consequence of the attack on the Freedom Flotilla came to the detriment of Iran's regional assets. One Turkish political analyst believes not. While Turkey certainly reaped political gains from the fallout of that incident, Iran did too. The US and Israel had been put on the defensive and forced to concede that the blockade on Gaza was not working, while international attention has become focused as never before on the crime being perpetrated against the people of Gaza. Such developments vindicated Tehran's long- standing opposition to the blockade, which therefore should be regarded as a political gain. In short, the analyst continued, both sides -- Turkey and Iran -- came out ahead. If one came out a little further ahead, this did nothing to detract from the standing of the other. Turkey is not the only party that brought this approach to its relationship with Iran. Some in Iran are doing likewise. Whereas they had once perceived Turkey as a Western outpost opposed to its neighbours, they now believe that it is in the process of executing subtle shifts that will make Turkey a constructive partner for the region and for Iran in particular. They point to the new role that Turkey has begun to play in the saga of Iran's battle over its nuclear ambitions with the West, which is constantly pushing for harsher sanctions against Tehran, citing the Brazilian-Turkish opposition to the UN sanctions resolution as an indicator of new regional and international equations that are in the process of formation. A Turkish journalist related to the Weekly a story that bears out the new even keel that Turkey is striving to strike in its foreign relations. "I was accompanying Foreign Minister Davutoglu on a trip to an Arab country. During a press conference, a local journalist mentioned that the Sunni countries hoped that Turkey would act to offset the mounting Iranian influence in the region. Davutoglu replied, 'Turkey will not become a party to any conflict or crisis. What it can do is to intervene as a party in ending conflicts and crises in the region, in which it enjoys good relations with Arab and Islamic nations, just as it does with Iran.'" It is not just from seminars and interviews with Turkish intellectuals and journalists that one gains the impression that Turkey is in the midst of a remarkable process of change. Even the ordinary man in the street sees the Turkish government of Erdogan's JDP as the spearhead of a drive to rediscover and reassert Turkey's own identity through the calm and steadfast pursuit of a rational and balanced policy. So far this policy has scored not only political but also economic successes. Suffice it to say that Turkey has accomplished the almost miraculous achievement of becoming the world's sixth strongest economy, with an economic growth rate that is expected to outstrip that of Germany.
