Resurgent Turkey Flexes Its Muscles Around Iraq.

HT:Aim.Resurgent Turkey Flexes Its Muscles Around Iraq.A Turkey as resurgent as at any time since its Ottoman glory is projecting influence through a turbulent Iraq, from the boomtowns of the north to the oil fields near southernmost Basra, in a show of power that illustrates its growing heft across an Arab world long suspicious of it.Its ascent here, in an arena contested by the United States and Iran, may prove its greatest success so far, as it emerges from the shadow of its alliance with the West to chart an often assertive and independent foreign policy.Turkey's influence is greater in northern Iraq and broader, though not deeper, than Iran's in the rest of the country. While the United States invaded and occupied Iraq, losing more than 4,400 troops there, Turkey now exerts what may prove a more lasting legacy -- so-called soft power, the assertion of influence through culture, education and business."This is the trick -- we are very much welcome here," said Ali Riza Ozcoskun, who heads Turkey's consulate in Basra, one of four diplomatic posts it has in Iraq.Just as the Justice and Development Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reoriented politics in Turkey, it is doing so in Iraq, with repercussions for the rest of the region.While some Turkish officials recoil at the notion of neo-Ottomanism -- an orientation of Turkey away from Europe and toward an empire that once included parts of three continents -- the country's process of globalization and attention to the markets of the Middle East is upsetting assumptions that only American power is decisive. Turkey has committed itself here to economic integration, seeing its future in at least an echo of its past."No one is trying to overtake Iraq or one part of Iraq," said Aydin Selcen, who heads the consulate in Erbil, which opened this year. "But we are going to integrate with this country. Roads, railroads, airports, oil and gas pipelines -- there will be a free flow of people and goods between the two sides of the border."Posters of Turkish television serials -- from "Muhannad and Nour" to "Forbidden Love" -- sell by the tens of thousands. The action series "Valley of the Wolves" is a sensation, the lead actor lending his name to cafes. His own posters are computer-altered to show him in traditional Kurdish or Arab dress -- grist for a graduate school seminar on the adaptability of cultural symbols.Oil is still king in Iraq, and as much as anything else, underlines Turkey's interests here. The pipeline from Kirkuk, Iraq, to Ceyhan, Turkey, already carries roughly 25 percent of Iraq's oil exports.The Turks have signed on to the ambitious $11 billion Nabucco gas pipeline project, which may bypass Russia and bring Iraqi gas to Europe. Turkish companies have two stakes in oil contracts, and two more in gas projects, potentially worth billions of dollars. In a land of oil, no place has more than Basra.Hmmmm......."Outreach to Muslims"....Obama....Erdogan.The fallen soldiers thank you.Read the full story here.