Ottoman dreamer
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s activist foreign policy has its strengths. Cheap populism is not one of them
Nov 5th 2011 | from the print edition
IN THEIR awakening this year, many Arabs have looked to Turkey for inspiration. Turkey is not just a fellow Muslim country and their former imperial power. It also offers, for all its faults, a shining (and rare) example in the Islamic world of a strong democracy and a successful free-market economy. And the Turks have responded well, if sometimes belatedly. They were early to call for change in Egypt. They endorsed NATO’s intervention in Libya. They are now unequivocally backing the opposition to the Assad regime in neighbouring Syria.
More:Turkish foreign policy: Ottoman dreamer | The Economist
