THE REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, VOLUME 3, NO. 2, 2003.
Mustafa AYDIN
Although not one of the great powers of the twentieth century, its geopolitic allocation has enabled Turkey to play a potentially higher role in world politics than otherwise would have been possible. It not only holds the key to the Turkish Straits but sits astride the roads from the Balkans to the Middle East and from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf. It is a member of the largest surviving military bloc, that is, NATO, as well as an associate member of the European Union (EU). Its political involvement and exposed position assign an importance hardly matched by any other middle power. Further, it successfully expanded its strategic importance in general amidst the dust created by the important systemic changes in world politics since the end of the Cold War in 1989. Thus Turkey has, once more, emerged as an important actor, poised to play a leadingrole across a vast region extending ‘from eastern Europe to western China’