The National by way of WPR's Media Roundup.
The gist:
Turkey has embarked on the road to a “Middle Eastern Union” as an alternative to the European Union, according to some observers, after Ankara unveiled its vision for a giant free-trade zone spanning from the Bosphorus to Sudan and Morocco.
The country has taken the first step towards forming the bloc by signing an agreement with three southern neighbours – a move being viewed in some quarters as further evidence that Ankara is losing interest in joining the EU. “Turkey’s new aspiration: Middle Eastern Union,” the Milliyet daily newspaper trumpeted on its front page after the signing of a free-trade agreement between Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan during a Turkish-Arab forum in Istanbul last week. According to the agreement, the four countries will drop all trade and visa restrictions between them.
Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, said this was only the beginning. His country was in favour of strengthening co-operation within a region spanning from Turkey to equatorial Africa, he said. “We want to turn this region into a security region, into a region of economic integration.” Mr Davutoglu did not present any concrete proposals to make that giant new trade zone a reality, and there was no sign that his statement had been coordinated in advance with any of the two dozen countries that would make up a bloc reaching from the Black Sea to the Gulf of Guinea. Neither did Mr Davutoglu address the question of how realistic the chances are to create a regional pact that would bring together sworn enemies like Iran and Israel.
This should be our foreign policy, quite frankly, because it serves our strategic interests to no end.
But since we seem incapable of such strategic imagination anymore, why the hell not support Turkey in such ambition--no matter what china gets broken in the process?
Even with the recent shenanigans over the Gaza flotilla, I say it's a proud time to be a Turk. They are talking and they are walking, while we merely keep balls in the air, occasionally patting ourselves on the back between tosses.