"Triumph of the Turks"

The new issue of Newsweek has an interesting article looking at how Turkey is filling the vacuum created by the United State's misadventure in Iraq. "....in terms of regional influence, Turkey has no rival," in the post-war environment, the magazine says. "The country's stern-faced prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is working to consolidate that strength as he asserts Turkey's independence in a part of the world long dominated by America." (You can read the full article here.)

The article also includes an interview with Turkey's influential foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu (read it here) and a slightly hagiographic backgrounder about him (here) taken from the Turkish-language version of Newsweek, which recently ran a long profile of the FM.