Financial Times FT.com

Turkey: The sentinel swivels

By Delphine Strauss and David Gardner

Published: July 20 2010 20:35 | Last updated: July 20 2010 20:35

A turkish demonstrator behind a turkish flag
Crescent tense: a demonstrator stands behind the Turkish flag during a protest outside Isreal’s consulate in Istanbul in May, after Israeli warships killed nine Turks storming a flotilla of aid ships bound for Gaza. Ankara warned then of ‘irreparable consequences’ for bilateral ties

Toronto, Brussels, Bishkek and London in one week; in another, visits ranging from Lisbon to Kabul. Since he became Turkey’s foreign minister just over a year ago, Ahmet Davutoglu has clocked up more than 100 international trips as he hyperactively pursues his vision of Turkey as a rising regional power. Not for nothing does he hail from Konya, ancestral home of the whirling dervishes.

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