Turkey Should Build Bridges

By Ilnur Cevik
TDN- Turkey has started hosting an important summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) only a few weeks after it hosted the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). This underlines the unique position of our country.
Turks have always boasted of being the physical link between the East and the West, but we feel it is time Turkey also became a genuine bridge between Western civilization and the Muslim world.
With its enthusiasm, dynamism and positive performance since coming to power in November 2002, the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has shown it is capable of shouldering this important mission.
Some tried to write-off this government as an administration with religious roots, but soon they were proven wrong. The government began by building bridges inside Turkish society between the secularist elite and the masses with religious sensitivities. Then it embarked upon a mission to get Turkey into the European Union with a series of impressive reforms, while in the process abandoning Ankara`s traditional approach on Cyprus thus opening the way for a viable solution on the island.
So this government is quite capable of shouldering an important mission like building genuine bridges between the Western world and the Muslim world, thus averting a much anticipated clash of civilizations, but for this it needs the help of its allies.
NATO is undergoing an important transformation after the Cold War and has to shoulder important responsibilities in the fight against global terrorism, but even then we have to remember that the use of sheer force against terrorism may not be the remedy to prevent a possible clash of the civilizations. We need social, educational, cultural and even economic measures to build a common understanding on superior values that should be sovereign in our world today.
So the use of force and combating terrorism is necessary to halt the murderous gangs that are threatening our civilizations, but is not really the remedy to avert a conflict between civilizations.
Turkey can and should shoulder this huge mission, but for this we need our allies and friends to help. The fact that we are hosting the NATO summit is important, but we need to show the Islamic world that Turkey has an enhanced place in the Western system.
Turkey needs to bolster its position in the Western world by taking new steps to consolidate its position in the EU by at least getting a date for the start of its accession talks. This cannot be done when some leaders of the Western world still question if Turkey is really a part of the Western system. Some Turks rightfully feel we were being used during the Cold War. Also, these same leaders are now quite simply trying to sideline us.
But this is wrong. Maybe today Turkey has a more important role to play for the West than ever. Can anyone point to another country with such unique potential?