Understanding Turkey's Role in the Middle East

Listen as Kerim Balci, Editor of the Turkish Review, and a leading dissident in that country discusses Turkey's important role in the Middle East and the various historical, ethnic and religious forces that often pull them in conflicting directions. Take for example, President Erdogan's sudden turn towards becoming a "demo-crator" (or democratically elected dictator) like his former friend and now outspoken foe, Vladimir Putin. Are these two strongmen the last of a dying breed or two halves of the same coin? And how will both react to the growing chaos in Syria?Will Russia continue to bomb the Turkmen (and other rebel foes of the Assad regime...a regime that both Turkey and the US are committed to see removed)? And will Turkey be forced to protect this Turkish minority in Syria and enter into an armed conflict or confrontation with Russia, similar to the wars they've historically fought over the past two centuries? Or will the new economic realities (where Russia supplies most of Turkey's natural gas) trump this ethnic tie? It all depends, says Mr. Balci, on the personalities of the Middle East's two last "democrators" (Putin and Erdogan) and how they balance the competing ethnic, religious and geopolitical forces that keep them in power, including their own desire to correct history and restore their respective countries' "lost greatness" (with eerie similarities to our own Mr. Trump).Hear Mr. Balci's views on this "post imperial trauma" and how Turkey will continue to follow it's own path by continuing to fight the Kurds whom we see as the best ground forces in our fight against ISIS but whom the Turks see as an even bigger threat to their national integrity, as they've fought for decades to break away and turn a big part of eastern Turkey (along with northern Syria, Iraq and Iran) into the homeland they were promised but never received after the Allies redrew the map of the Middle East after World War II.Spend an hour and get a crash course in Middle Eastern history, ethnic tensions and religious fissures that continue to confound our efforts for peace throughout the region and learn how Turkey may be the key to it all with its one foot in Europe (as a trusted NATO ally and proposed European Union member) and its other foot in the Islamic world (including its model role as an Islamic secular state, now threatened by Mr. Erdogan's rise as a classic MIddle Eastern strongman backed by his increasingly conservative Islamic political party).  All brought to us by the Orange County Chapter of the Pacifica Institute as part of their commitment to "interfaith dialog" and a greater understanding of Turkey here in America.