Turkey's confused foreign policy leaves it facing ethical dilemmas

President Recep Erdoğan spoke the truth when he said recently that Turkey is a European country. This may appear odd to those who predicate their outlook on religious factors. However, the geo-political geography that a country belongs to has to be considered from a much broader perspective.

Those who have bothered to read European history, rather than relying on cultural myths only, are more than aware that Turks and Europeans have interacted - for good or bad - from the moment the Ottomans consolidated their power.

This history was never a simple case of "Islam against the infidel" or "Christendom against the Anti-Christ." There have been plenty of alliances between Muslim Ottomans and Catholic or Protestant European powers based on political or economic interests. 

The Ottomans provided refuge to Swedish Kings, Hungarian national heroes or Polish notables in this context, while Ottoman princes, pretenders to the throne, intellectuals, and nationalists found refuge in Europe. 

There is a vast library that not only corroborates this, but also shows how deep the Turkish (if indeed the Ottomans can be considered "Turkish" in the way we do today) and European interaction has been, all the way up to the First World War and beyond.

This interaction was never out of choice, but mostly out of necessity based on geopolitical realities. Put another way, if there are those in Europe today who believe the continents can cut its links with Turkey and live happily ever after, they are dreaming.

The same applies to Turkey. If there are those in this country who believe Turkey can sever all of its links with Europe and turn eastwards and live happily ever after, they too are dreaming. 

Robert T. Kaplan's book "The...