The US’s bird’s-eye-view outlook of world affairs has made PM Ecevit’s Washington visit an unexpected success of universal importance for Turkey. The formation of G-20 and Turkey’s inclusion was certainly a great realism for American diplomacy and a practical solution concerning the controversy over Turkey’s full membership to the EU. This achievement was recorded despite the existing, if not widening, policy differences of the two countries on international issues such as Cyprus, Saddam, the Caucuses, and the Middle East.

The biggest question about Turkey’s plans to play a pivotal role in Eurasia is the superpower struggle in this region. Most people believe that Russia is no longer a superpower, but the Dagestan and Chechen events proved last week that, superpower or not, the Russian Federation is still a great power to reckon with especially in Turkey’s plans for a pivotal role in Eurasia. PM Ecevit’s scheduled visit to Moscow within a few weeks may be a milestone in shaping Ankara’s plans for the new "Eurasian Order" in the new millennium. Ankara’s plans for Eurasia are far from bring free of serious difficulties and pitfalls.

Political stability has been achieved in Turkey after two decades of strenuous efforts. Is this stability durable? What is in store for this stability in the future? Everything revolves around foreign policy developments and security arrangements. A top commander’s unequivocal statement sheds light on what Turkey should expect if political stability is to continue.

The military coup in Pakistan bears signs of a very important international movement concerning the future of political developments in Asia. Turkey, which has been through three such military interventions in the post war period, may set an example to Pakistan in its fourth coup since its independence. The Wahabi threat to the Islamic countries of Asia will, therefore, be replaced by Turkey’s example of secularism, if the Pakistan coup advances at the right direction.

Natural gas has overshadowed oil in Turkey’s energy strategy and involves radical foreign policy readjustments. The Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline is still one of Turkey’s priority projects that will affect the region’s international developments - the Caucuses and the Middle East. In the 20^th century the Arab world’s Middle East oil was the determining factor in shaping international events and even wars. Will Central Asia’s natural gas be the determining factor in the 21^st century and will the Turks be more successful than the Arabs in not falling into capitalism’s traps and intrigues? There is reason to believe that the Turkish world in the new century will be much more successful in its natural gas strategies than the feuding Arab world has been about oil in the outgoing century.