Turkey and the Middle East: The Reshaping of Regional Relations

by Eric Walberg
Global Research, March 25, 2011

Recent initiatives by its government attest to Turkey’s determination to bring a new realism to world politics, and events in the Arab world provide an opportunity to reshape regional relations,

As Turkey gears up to parliamentary elections in June, recent pronouncements by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu confirmed the importance that the Turkish leadership places in defining a more dynamic role for Turkey in the Middle East as a bridge between East and West.

The Leaders of Change summit 13-14 March in Istanbul brought together a hundred political leaders, academics and journalists primarily from the US, Europe and the Middle East. The summit was opened by the Turkish prime minister, who referred to Turkey as a “democratic social state based on social justiceâ€