Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul played host to a summit in Istanbul of 21 leaders of regional powers, including Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. All condemned Israel for its blockade of Gaza and especially its deadly raid on a Turkish flotilla of aid ships.
World Policy Journal Editor David A. Andelman explained on WCBS2 Sunday Morning that the confrontation with Israel represents a new direction in Turkey’s foreign policy—toward its Middle East neighbors which it once ruled for centuries, and away from the West which it had courted for decades.