Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
THE FORMER OTTOMAN EMPIRE
If the Iranian plateau is the most pivotal geography in the Greater Middle East, then the land
bridge of Anatolia, or Asia Minor, follows in importance naturally from it. Just as the Ira-
nian plateau is completely covered by one country, Iran, so is the Anatolian land bridge, by
Turkey. Together, these two countries, defined by mountains and plateaus overlooking desert
Arabia from the north, boast a combined population of almost 150 million people, slightly
larger than that of all the twelve Arab countries to the south which comprise the Fertile Cres-
cent and the Arabian Peninsula. One would have to add Egypt and the rest of North Africa
stretching to the Atlantic in order for the Arabs to demographically overwhelm the weight
of Turkey and Iran.
Turkey and Iran—crucial parts of both Mackinder's wilderness girdle and Spykman's
Rimland—also contain the Middle East's richest agricultural economies, as well as its
highest levels of industrialization and technological know-how. The very existence of Iran's
nuclear program, and the indigenous ability of Turkey to follow suit if—for the sake of na-
tional prestige—it wished, contrasts sharply with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries,
which lack the intellectual capacity for their own such programs, and would therefore re-
quire a technology transfer from an existing nuclear power like Pakistan.
Turkey, like Iran, constitutes its own major region, influencing clockwise the Balkans, the
Black Sea, Ukraine and southern Russia, the Caucasus, and the Arab Middle East. Espe-
cially in comparison to the Arab world, Turkey, writes Stratfor strategist George Friedman,
around it, Turkey's position as a land bridge bracketed between the Mediterranean to the
south and the Black Sea to the north makes it, in part, an island nation. The lack of dry-land
contiguity means that though Turkey influences the surrounding area, it is not geographic-
ally pivotal in the way that Iran is to its neighbors. Turkey's influence in the Balkans to the
west and Syria and Mesopotamia to the south is primarily economic, though in the former
Yugoslavia it has lately become involved in post-conflict mediation. Only in the Caucasus,
and particularly in Azerbaijan, where the language is very close to Turkish, does Turkey en-
joy the level of diplomatic influence that can dramatically affect daily politics.
Turkey, it is true, controls the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates: a terrific geograph-
ical advantage, giving it the ability to cut off the supply of water to Syria and Iraq. But were
Turkey to actually do this, it would constitute the equivalent of an act of war. Thus, Turkey
must be subtle in pressing this advantage. It is the fear that Turkey might reduce the water
flow, through upriver diversions for its own agricultural development purposes, that can give
Turkey considerable influence over Arab politics. A relatively new geopolitical fact that is
often overlooked is the Southeast Anatolia Project, whose centerpiece is the Ataturk Dam,
twenty-five miles north of Sanliurfa near the Syrian border. Almost two thousand square
