In a recent article in Newsweek, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan branded the EU “geriatric” and “comatose.” This reflects not only Ankara’s frustrations with the EU accession process, but also the global transformations of the early 21st century.

At the end of this century’s first decade, we can observe how the locus of power has shifted in world politics. The G20 is replacing the G7 as the overseer of the global economy. The need to restructure the U.N. Security Council to be more representative of the international order is profoundly pressing. And emerging powers such as Brazil, India, Turkey, and others are playing very assertive roles in global economic affairs.

It was meant as a symbol of friendship that would help to heal the wounds of a long history of bloodshed, bitterness, and recrimination between Turkey and Armenia. Instead, an imposing monument in the eastern Turkish city of Kars near the two countries' border threatens to become yet another victim of their tortured relations after incurring the wrath of Turkey's mercurial prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

For those confused about the direction of Turkish foreign policy, good news is at hand. Every twist and every turn, we are promised, will be able to be condensed into a microblog of 140 characters and posted on Twitter.

Turkish soap operas have conquered the Balkans reversing Turkey's negative image with the Balkan nations from the time of the Ottoman yoke, according to Austrian paper Der Standard. Turkey's film industry is not only making money from the showing of its soaps in Balkan countries... but it is also helping out the Turkish diplomacy, the newspaper says in an article entitled "Ottoman Television Runs Like Clockwork."

In this video, we visit one of the showcases of that Turkish penetration across the border into Iraq’s semi autonomous Kurdish region, at the glitziest shopping mall in the Kurdish enclave.

Turkey's ambassadors serving abroad and at Foreign Ministry headquarters will gather for the opening of a week-long brainstorming session to discuss the foreign policy goals of the country.

This is an undeniable fact that, today; there is a very different Turkey in the world political scene in terms of its foreign policy rationale. Ankara’s attitude toward Iran and the crisis with Israel following the Mavi Marmara incident have especially pulled Turkey into the center of the Middle East.