Great Article on Turkey's Overreach on Iranian Nuke Issue

I have to agree that whenever the Ottomans tried to do anything in the east and south of their countries they always ran into trouble. Now they are trying to meddle in the Middle East and it might come to their own grief.

Their joint intervention on the Iranian nuclear program gives an impression of naive over-eagerness. If the two countries had wanted to play a serious and constructive role (and there was room for them to do so) they would have needed to inform themselves more fully about the state of play, build confidence among the current group of six countries who have been handling the issue (the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany), and take a proposal to Iran that had a realistic chance of being accepted by both sides. The proposal they submitted to the Iranians was sloppy and ill-advised, clearly doomed from the start. Even very casual conversations with Russia and China would have told the Turks and Brazilians that this was a non-starter.

If I were playing the Great Game as Turkey I would partner with the other anti-Iran Gulf states in order to make their government fall. The idea of a nuclear armed power to your southeast should make you rethink your equation. I mean the Iranians could care less about Turkey in any other capacity then simply a "useful idiot" on the Security Council.

A Democratic Iran would be a far greater partner for Turkish business interests and trade then what you have now. Also close trade ties with a vibrant, growing, oil rich power (that is no longer encumbered by sanctions) would actually bring money into the dirt-poor east and south of your country. Just having more oil pipelines that pass through your country and into Europe would mean billions more a year.

These pipelines also strengthens your hand when it comes to joining the EU. You no longer enter as a country with a terribly poor east and south but an established oil player. You will also be the gateway to the emerging powers that a Democratic Iran and Iraq would be in 20 years time.

Also with prosperity comes complacency when it comes to the Kurds living in your country. A prosperous Kurdish population that you have built up with your ties to Democratic Iran will be less likely to rebel or form their own nation. You also counter Iraqi Kurdish money and influence in your southern regions as well.