A wild Turkey

Turkey under Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan has gone from being a staunch NATO ally and testimony as to the ability of a Muslim country to govern itself rationally (if with the occasional help of the military) to a semi-Islamist bull charging through the Middle East china shop after drinking several gallons of double espresso.  David Warren calls Erdogan, "The man who could trigger a world war":

The "vision" of this politician, which he can articulate charismatically, is to combine efficient, basically free-market economic management, with a puritanized version of the religious ideals of the old Ottoman Caliphate. (Gentle reader may recall that I am allergic to visionary and charismatic politicians, who operate on the body politic like a dangerous drug.)

Erdogan's vision has turned outward. His strategy has been to seek better economic integration with the West, while making new political alliances with the East - most notably with Iran. He now presents Turkey as the champion of "mainstream" Sunni Islamism, while trying to square the circle with Persian Shia Islamism. This could still come to grief over Syria, where the Turks want Iran's man, Assad, overthrown, and the Muslim Brotherhood brought into a new Syrian government.

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