Sir: Turkey, the former Ottoman Empire, recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of its accession to NATO — the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation — the most formidable military alliance in the world. For all of its 60 years as a member of NATO, Turkey has been allowed a supporting role assigned by the US, with which Ankara has seemingly been quite content. Now with Ankara playing an important role in the Middle East and elsewhere, it appears to be flexing its diplomatic and economic muscle within the Alliance for a greater role. Turkey’s own plans for the Chicago summit include lobbying for alliance membership for neighbouring Georgia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Republic of Macedonia and Montenegro. Ankara’s confidence in pushing back against Brussels comes in part from Turkey’s booming economy; by contrast with the European Union’s lacklustre performance of late, Turkey’s 8.5 percent growth rate in 2011 ranked as the highest among members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Economic success has enabled Ankara to step up its contributions to such key NATO initiatives as Kosovo and Afghanistan. Turkey’s location, though, is probably the most decisive factor in its rising diplomatic influence. The country borders Syria, Iran and Iraq, and with its charismatic Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, whose influence and popularity extends across the Arab countries, it has become an invaluable US ally. Turkey has gained a sort of comparative advantage in its relationship with the US over other countries in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and even Europe. Turkey is no ordinary Muslim nation like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Qatar or Afghanistan for others to interfere or manipulate and the Turkish leadership has demonstrated this firm resolve in the recent humanitarian effort for the Gaza Strip aimed at freeing the Palestinians from fascist Israel’s terror blockade and regular terror attacks. The European Council is a political club of the 27 EU chiefs-of-state but without Turkey. The European Council should have European Turkey as its member, but the EU leaders continue to curtail Turkey’s efforts for membership. There is a clear indication of how much frustration, disillusionment and even antagonism has built up over Turkey’s accession process. Turkey is trying to leverage its own relationship with NATO to put pressure on the EU. It is a great example for other Muslim countries to follow. Resolve, political will and a true nationalist spirit can make powers of the likes of NATO and the US deal upfront with the country in question. It took Turkey three decades to shed the imperialist influence to become a true Turkish state. COL (RETD) DR ABDUL RAUF Via email