The Republic of Turkey exists on the axis of history and geography. Moving from Central Asia toward the West, Turks eventually resided in one of the most geo-strategic lands on earth after thousands of year of migration.
The Ottomans ruled over a vast empire whose borders in the 16th century stretched from Central Europe to the Middle East and from North Africa to the Caucasus. Therefore, the Ottomans ruled over one-third of the most fertile lands on earth for a couple of centuries.
Thus, our cultural geography is beyond the borders of the Republic of Turkey, which were determined according to the National Pact of the War of Independence. On the one hand, such a vast cultural geography presents invaluable opportunities in terms of trade, politics and culture. On the other, Muslims invoke Turkey whenever they encounter existential trouble.
When Serbian forces brutally slaughtered 450,000 Muslims in the Bosnian War, thousands of Bosnians immigrated to Turkey and settled in Bursa. Turkey played an active role in the Bosnian War by providing military and political support. Chechen Muslims invoked support from Turkey during their war against Russia. In a similar vein, Palestinians in their struggle against the invasion of Israel invoke the support of Turkey. Thus, regardless of their present military, economic, cultural and diplomatic capability, peoples of our culture always invoke the assistance of Turkey, i.e., the heir of the Ottoman Empire. Today, it is the United States that reserves the greatest budget for security intelligence and military investments. While the United Kingdom, China and Russia follow the lead of the U.S., countries with less economic and military capacities like Iran and Turkey must take a firm stance and remain vigilant in their region of political influence.
Today the U.S. and the rest of the Western powers aim at perpetuating wars, chaos and civil strife in the Middle East. When the recent history of the Middle East is studied from the oil wars of the 1970, the Lebanese Civil War, the Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq war to the Gulf Wars and the ongoing Syrian civil war, it is understood that international powers pursue a policy aimed at the internal collapse for the region. While the U.S. continues to develop and apply theories of chaos in the Middle East, many states in the region assist it in their self-destruction.
The state officials of the region's countries have the responsibility to act with a deep body of knowledge by developing long-term perspectives, which take the hidden political agendas of international powers into consideration. The Syrian civil war demonstrates that not a single external actor involved in the crisis has any good intention for the future of the Syrian people. Their sole aim is to gain geopolitical influence in the region. Thus, it is imperative to act in prudence whenever an issue of the Middle East comes to the table. We need to not forget that a war in the region will always be advantageous for colonizing powers and disadvantageous for the people in the region.
When the current independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan is taken into consideration, it is seen that a familiar scenario is being staged in the Middle East. While a strong sign of stability and peace appeared in Iraq and Syria by the fall of the Daesh, the referendum condemns the region to further chaos and war.
Therefore, it is now time for Turkey to act as a strong state after prudently analyzing the internal and external dynamics of the region through its invaluable experiences of strategic institutions and charities. It is imperative for Turkey to act systematically and strategically in a region of chaos and war.