"The man behind Turkey's strategic depth
By Caleb Lauer
ISTANBUL - As current Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu describes it, Turkey was a 'wing state' of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) during the Cold War, at the edge, protecting the core. The only NATO country, besides Norway, to border the Soviet Union, Turkey was the first place the Truman Doctrine of containing communism was put into practice. This Western allegiance and its military character suited Turkish state elites and so, for 44 years, in exchange for money and arms, Turkey guarded itself and the southeast corner of Europe from the red threat."
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