The Role Turkey Plays and the Influence it has on the Middle East

The Role Turkey Plays and the Influence it has on Middle East Name Institutional Affiliation Turkey’s Role and Its Influence in Middle East Turkey is now understood to have formed the Republic of Turkey which includes the history of both the Eastern Thrace (the European part) and Anatolia (the Asian part of Turkey). Turkey is derived from Turchia, Middle Latin which means the land of the Turks, this refers to a different territory, historically known as Eastern Europe and Central Asia which later became under the Turk’s control in the early period of medieval. Since that time when Turkey as now owned by Turks, its history spans the medieval history of the Seljuk Empire and the Republic of Turkey’s history since the 1920s. The Republic of Turkey was proclaimed in 1923, October 29th, this made the Turks enjoy self-rule. The first president of the Republic of Turkey was now elected, Mustafa Kemal. The first president of the Republic died in 1938 but after introducing various reforms in social, political, economic, legal and cultural spheres that were never seen in some other countries (Tambar, 2014). Under the leadership of Ataturk, the first Grand National Assembly created a new legal and political system based on human rights, parliamentary democracy, private ownership, secularism, and state affairs, separation of religion and national sovereignty and division of power principles. A whole new secular education system was established and the Latin alphabet was introduced from changes in the Arabic alphabet. There was also an adaptation of new criminal and civil codes from European models. Under the law, Turkish women acquired equal rights such as, to be elected to public offices and the right to vote as well. The women rights put Turkey at the forefront of many other Western nations. That was an exceptional revolution at its time, and even today, to bring a Muslim nation in line with universal values and Western civilization. Turkey now plays a changing role in the Middle East (Ismael, Ismael, & Perry, 2015). Three years ago, Ahmet Davutoglu, the then Turkey’s foreign minister said, that the change in Middle East will be managed by them. He further clarified that they had an idea of a new Middle East just as they had an idea in their minds about Turkey. Ahmet Davutoglu has been Turkey’s prime minister until 2015. His confidence has not been justified by events yet. The most dramatic example is the deadliest bombing in Turkey’s modern history, one which happened during his reign. For more than the 100 civilians murdered, there was no claim of responsibility, but if the Islamic state was behind it, then it was predicted. The policy towards the Islamic State by Turkey, which gave itself the name ISIL, ISIS might be well known as “live and let kill.” The authorities in Turkey did little to prevent the continuity of jihads, the flow of weapons and money crossing into Syria (Andersen, Seibert, & Wagner, 2001). With virtual indemnity, Islamic States agents recruited the citizens of Turkey. The Turks made a lot of cash trading antiquities and oil that were stolen by the Islamic State. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who I think was Turkey’s most powerful political figure maybe thought he would be part of the Islamic State. But he seemed to have priorities such as, eliminating Kurdish forces and to topple Bashar Assad, the then Syrian president. In the southern border town of Suruc, another 33 civilians were killed by suicide bombers in July, and most of them were Kurds (Gunes, & Lowe, 2015). It is the Turkish intelligence who concluded that the one responsible was the Islamic State. The Turkish authorities began a few airstrikes against the caliphate in Syria and investigating suspected jihads at homes. The United States was also allowed to use the Turkish bases to strike the Islamic State. Soon after, civilians demonstrating for peace were attacked. There has been a negotiation by the government with the PKK that the European Union and the United States are termed as a terrorist organization on one hand, and that Turkey has been bombing PKK bases on the other hand. Erdogan’s AKP Party lost the majority it had since 2002 from the attack which made an unexpected political dimension (Khoury, & Kostiner, 1991). It was suspected that Erdogan participated in the bombing, maybe expecting that voters would support him because of fear. The then US Obama argued that the war in Syria is not is not a conflict between Russia and United States and added that it is also not a superpower contest. This brought up the question: What is it all about then? But as Davutoglu said, that a “new Middle East” is being created by “a wave of change”. Turkey has also asserted a more independent ...