ABSTRACT
The Balkans were mainly an Ottoman dominion until after the period 1878–1913 and remain of strategic, economic, and cultural interest to Turkey. The Caucasus and Central Asia are rapidly becoming part of the global economic and political system and the western cultural sphere, not only because of their own need for survival but because they are a vital part of the emerging balance of power among Asia, Europe, and the United States. Turkey’s leaders have navigated the ship of state in such a way as to remain marginal to Europe and to the Muslim Middle East, while claiming to belong to both of them. Thus the Turks became part of an already existing anti-Muslim image of Islam—one that would be revived from time to time, reinforced, and perpetuated with new arguments regardless of the circumstances. The encounters between the Ottoman empire and western Europe during this first period were sporadic and accidental.
