As you say in your leader and article about Turkey’s foreign policy, its criticism in parts of the west, and especially in America, is overdone (“Ottoman Dreamer” and “Dormant Power Revival,” November 5, 2011). Even though some mending of fences with several Middle East countries is still due, the country credibly seeks “zero problems with neighbors” in the words of Ahmet Davutoğlu, Turkey’s foreign minister. This stands to reason, especially in view of the country’s wider ambitions. You mention Ottoman dreaming, and your map of the empire in 1878 clearly shows how wide the dreams might reach. But there is much more to Turkey than the empire of old. Turkic peoples stretch from Europe all the way to Mongolia. Their countries line the soft underbelly of Russia and penetrate deep into China. Many of them are rich with oil and gas. Thwarted in its European ambitions by the European Union’s many complaints, often trifling, Turkey is becoming a power to be reckoned with on account of both its old empire and its ethnic links to the cradle of all Turks, the Altai Mountains. And this may well be the real reason for the criticism of Turkey’s foreign policy in parts of the west, and especially in America. By comparison, its Middle East neighbors are of little import, that is.