JERUSALEM — A few months before he became Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's chief adviser, met with a group of Middle Eastern academics and policy experts, including Arabs and Israelis. With his academic background and immense erudition, he succeeded in painting, on a wide canvass, the new directions of Turkey's policies under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) leadership.
By then, it had become clear that Turkey's road to the European Union had been closed, somewhat rudely, owing mainly to combined German and French pressure. But those who expected Islamist fire and brimstone from Davutoglu were deeply disappointed.
What was articulated was a levelheaded and sophisticated expose, seldom heard from policymakers: It was thoughtful, honest, and breathtaking. It was also a clear departure from the conventional foreign-policy straitjacket devised by Kemal Ataturk, which had for decades forced Turkish diplomacy into the Procrustean bed of 1920s-style integral nationalism.
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