An Overview of Turkey's Neo-Ottoman Ambitions in the Region

The following by by Ilias I. Kouskouvelis is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

The Problem with Turkey's "Zero Problems"
Turkey, Past and Future

by Ilias I. Kouskouvelis
Middle East Quarterly
Winter 2013, pp. 47-56 (view PDF)

http://www.meforum.org/3455/turkey-zero-problems

Under the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP), Turkey's foreign policy has been associated with the prescriptions and efforts of three men: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President Abdullah Gül, and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. Davutoğlu, a former international relations professor, has been the most articulate exponent of the troika's ideas, penning perhaps the most authoritative summary of its worldview in his 2001 Stratejik Derinlik (Strategic Depth)[1] and coining its foremost article of faith: a "zero-problems policy" with Turkey's neighbors because Ankara "wants to eliminate all the problems from her relations with neighbors or at least to minimize them as much as possible."[2]

The primary author of Turkey's deeply problematic "zero problems" foreign policy is Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu (right), seen here with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The main thrust of Davutoğlu's writing is a deep conviction in the incompatibility of the West and the Islamic world and resentment of the West for its attempt to impose its values and political system on the rest of the world.

This might all be well and good if such words were supported by actions. But Davutoğlu has also described Turkey as a "heavyweight wrestler," hinting that it may use "the maximum of its abilities" when dealing with its neighboring "middleweight wrestlers."[3] A survey of Ankara's relations with these "middleweight wrestlers" reveals its "zero problems policy" to be little more than a cover for the AKP's reasserted "neo-Ottoman" ambitions.

Erdogan Good Will Tour--Even A Teleprompter Wouldn't Help

FM Davutoglu co-opted his critics' derisive term for his personalized foreign policy, saying, "Yes, we are the New Ottomans." In so doing, he made coherent the past six years of Turkish foreign policy, which has seen an intensive interest in being part of peace negotiations stretching from Bosnia through Palestine to Afghanistan, the opening of embassies throughout much of Africa, and rapprochement with previous rivals, such as Iran, Syria, and Armenia.
Wikileaks [emphasis added]

Like Iran, Turkey too is looking to revive past glory--in this case, the lost glory of the Ottoman Empire. Along those lines, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is on a tour of the Middle East, presenting Turkey as a friend and benefactor.

But according to Haaretz, maybe Erdogan should keep in mind that many Arabs do not look kindly upon what the Ottoman Empire did to them: