English: Map showing the territories of the Ottoman Empire in 1914, including nominal and vassal territories. According to the information on the map in http://ottomanmilitary.devhub.com/ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Dr Alf makes a very good point ,and Dr Kissinger is also right in that he saw (and still sees) Turkey as strategically important.
The mistake Western leaders make, is trying to hold out for Turkey the prospect of EU membership in exchange for Turkey getting involved in Syria and other places.
Already we see that Turkey, whose Sunni Muslim population is moderate, is providing hospital treatment to ISIS fighters who supposedly want to recreate a new Caliphate.
Turkey’s leaders probably dream of recreating the Ottoman Empire, which was destroyed after the loss of much blood and treasure in World War 1.
Both Iran and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of funding ISIS. The danger is then that left unchecked Turkey, and other countries, will then carve up, or try to carve up the Middle East, and detach from Russia the primarily Muslim countries on Russia’s southern border.
Turkey up to now, has been refused EU membership because the EU is primarily a “Christian Club”, or at worst a reconstituted “Holy Roman Empire” which Germany sees it’s job as running.
If short-sighted people, like David Cameron, were to have their way, Turkey and the Ukraine would join the EU (he has said as much in recent years). If that were to ever happen, the Turks would probably out-breed and outnumber the indigenous European populations in short order, and we would be inside of a Caliphate over which we would have no control.
Turkey needs to be assisted to become a modern industrial nation in its own right, outside of the EU and not meddling in the affairs of others; David Cameron needs to be replaced; and ISIS needs to be removed.
The oligarchies represented by Saudi Arabia and Qatar may need to be replaced with regimes which are more democratic and in accordance with Western interests; and Erdogan in Turkey needs to be encouraged to stick to his “knitting”.
Western leaders’ current misreading of the situation in that part of the world is creating chaos, which once unleashed will be hard to stop.
It is time, once again, for the US to engage in an “active” foreign policy.
Dr Alf's Blog 