Almost unnoticed Turkey is in the midst of realigning the Middle East with themselves as the major leader and player.On Tuesday a new Free Trade agreement was signed between Turkey and Jordan. The new agreement phases out the visa and customs fees setting up a free trade zone between the two countries that is similar to the EU.
For years Turkey had sought to become a full fledge member of the European Union and has been held back. Now the Muslim rulers of Turkey are turning more toward the Middle East and seem intent upon making their country a major player if not the dominant one once more. Recently they completed new agreements with Syria and Iran with the specter and possibility of a new Caliphate in-the-making on the horizon. Now this week it is Jordan.
These developments are downplayed and pretty much ignored by the World press and the MSM in America. It is as if there is no historical understanding or perspective among the media or even American and European diplomats. It seems to be forgotten that at the turn of the last century and up to 1914 Turkey (Ottoman Empire) ruled the entire Middle East and was home to the last Islamic Caliphate.
But the events are looked upon with great interest on the Arab and Muslim street where there is still a hope and an expectation for a new Islamic Caliphate to be established and to lead the way toward Muslim world domination.
Since WWI Turkey was shorn of it’s empire and the Caliphate was disbanded and it became officially a ‘secular’ government. With the election of Recep Tayyip Erdogan as Prime Minister in 2003 along with his Islamist AK Parti and Abdullah Gül as President in 2007, Turkey has become less secular and far more religious with a view towards putting the old Islamic empire back together again.
Presently Erdogan and Gül seem to be intent on establishing a new economic union in the Middle East similar to the EU. So far Syria, Iran, and now Jordan have become involved in the process. For more than 60 years Turkey and the USA along with Israel have been close allies, this is all quickly changing and the indicators seem to be largely ignored by the Obama administration. Meanwhile, in the EU the new President would be just as happy if Turkey did ride off into the Middle Eastern sunset.