The Mecca Defense Agreement, the Ottoman Empire, and the facts

Some who are quite excited by the Mecca Defense Agreement, and some who think that Turkey should take sides in the conflicts between the Iranian-backed Houthis and Saudi Arabia, are once again dreaming of conquest, citing our Ottoman past. When history is discussed, especially Turkish history and Ottoman history, they frequently refer to the common saying: “After the Ottoman Empire collapsed, the Middle East and the Balkans never saw peace again.” 

We know that there are always those who want to re-establish the Ottoman Empire based on this saying. We also do not forget the response that prominent historians immediately give to these ignorant people: “Those who are not saddened by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire have no heart, but those who want to re-establish the Ottoman Empire have no brain.” 

Because the world we live in is not the world in which the Ottoman Empire rose, nor is it the world in which it collapsed. Both time and conditions have changed. In the lands where the Sublime Porte once reigned, there are more than 40 states today; if we also count the countries it temporarily ruled, occupied, or influenced, this number exceeds 50, or according to some historians, even 60 or 70. 

It is necessary to ask with a cool head: 

Which of these states, and how many of their citizens, want the Ottoman Empire to rise again and want the Turks who govern the newly established Ottoman Empire to come and govern them as well? To this end, how many of these states are coming together and telling Turkey, “Lead us, bring the Ottoman Empire back to life”? 

In today's world, is it objectively possible to establish such a multi-lingual, multi-religious, multi-sectarian, multi-national, and multi-identity empire? As former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu once mentioned, is it objectively possible for Turkey to establish and lead an Ottoman Commonwealth, similar to how the British established and led the British Commonwealth? Does Turkey have such political and economic power, state capacity, and scale? 

Do the states that emerged from the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire have such a goal, desire, or expectation? Are the conditions of the region and the world, and the balance of power, favorable for such an initiative? Even though so much time has passed since the end of the age of empires, is it a realistic goal to bring the countries that emerged as a result of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire together under the roof of a federation or a confederation? 

How do those who claim that there is such a desire in the Islamic world, the Arab world, and the Turkic world explain the closeness of the Turkic states in Central Asia to the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus, the Sunni-Shia and Arab-Persian tensions in the Islamic world, the Abraham Accords, the indifference of the Arabs regarding the Palestinian issue, and the fact that the TRNC is not recognized by a single Muslim country or a single Turkic state other than Turkey? 

If Turkey were to put forward such a claim, let alone Greece, Bulgaria, or Serbia, how would Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran react? 

These questions can certainly be multiplied. 

But there is plenty of information in history books about how interpretations made and dreams built without knowing history, geography, and economics end up. 

What is important in foreign policy is not to dream, but to be realistic.