Turkey’s star in the ascendent in the Middle East.
Well, the Middle East was a lot quieter when the Ottomans ran the place although they did have a penchant for committing appalling atrocities every now and again – ‘Blood understood the native mind…’ Now the US having seriously pissed them off by taking them for granted in the Iraq war and the EU* having pissed them off by rebuffing their approaches for membership they are quite sensibly turning their sights back to their traditional hunting grounds. It must be worrying for Israel. Actually all the Turks I have ever met have a very low opinion of the Arabs; they have a certain racial self-confidence, not to say feelings of superiority when it comes to their erstwhile subjects.
* UK is actually pro Turkish acession to the EU but in Continental Europe memories of the janissaries at the gates of Vienna (1617) seem to linger on.
Al B
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b95b658a-d2ca-11de-af63-00144feabdc0.html
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