Turkey has been a longtime strategic ally of the West—including Israel—having the second-largest military force in NATO. But Turkey is "signaling it's leaving its Western friends" with its "embrace of extremist neighbors" (Jill Nelson, "Switching Sides," World, Nov. 21, 2009).
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the democratic Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923. Since then, Turkey has tried to maintain a secular government—one not controlled by the dominant religion of Islam.
A turning point came in 2002, when the AKP, a Muslim-oriented political party, gained power and installed Recep Erdogan as prime minister. As he had promised, Erdogan pushed for full membership in the European Union, but now it's obvious that he has given up on that goal. Some of the reasons? Many Europeans oppose full EU membership for a large Muslim nation (with 97 percent of its land mass in Asia). And Turkey's old ally, the United States, is showing major signs of weakness.
Lately Erdogan has been blatantly announcing his support for the Muslim world, including Iran and terrorist organizations like Hamas. It seems the West is in denial about this geopolitical earthquake.
