THE FOREIGN POLICY? LEBENSRAUM
THE architect of Turkey’s foreign policy is a panIslamist academic who considers Israel a “geopolitical tumour” and believes his country needs lebensraum.
That is according to an analysis of Ahmet Davutoglu’s writing in his former guise as a university professor in the 1990s, before he entered politics as Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s foreign affairs adviser.
The study, by Behlül Özkan of Marmara University, Istanbul, paints a striking picture of the thinking that has moulded Turkish policy in the Middle East for over a decade. For Mr Davutoglu, his country’s future is a stark choice between deference to larger powers that will exploit it or creating a scenario in which Turkey does the exploiting. He believes his country’s Ottoman past can help overcome the nationstates dividing Muslims in the Middle East.
By developing strong economic ties and a circle of alliances, Mr Davutoglu believes Turkey can control its hinterland. As recently as 2001, he described this process as acquiring new Lebensraum – using the term in both Turkish (“hayat alanı”) and German – in areas inhabited by Muslims, Prof Özkan said.
This doctrine is built upon a common Muslim identity. Countries with significant non-Muslim populations like Israel and Lebanon do not fit the picture and are “artificial”, Mr Davutoglu argued. He described Israel as a “geopolitical tumour” and said Turkey became “a peripheral country that favoured the interests of Western colonialism in the East” when it recognised Israel.
Mr Davutoglu is now a lead contender to succeed Mr Erdogan as prime minister.