Turkish professor Erhan Afyoncu has commented on Türkiye’s and other countries’ position in terms of superpowerhood.
Afyoncu said;
▪️“They say, ‘Sir, we are becoming like the Ottoman Empire.’ It’s not that easy. The Ottoman Empire is on a different scale.
▪️Türkiye has become a regional power, but becoming a ‘superpower’ is a very high-level category.
▪️Think of the Ottoman Empire like this: whatever the United States is today, the Ottoman Empire was that in its time. These are superpowers…
▪️But China is not like that. People exaggerate China. It is an enormous production hub… but China was never truly imperial because it did not fight wars.
▪️States become superpowers through warfare. They have an imperial vision. In my view, China will not reach that category. It never did in history either.
▪️For example, Russia has an imperial vision. It knows this and acts accordingly as well.
▪️Is it a good thing? No. It went and occupied Ukraine and killed many people. But it sees that territory within its imperial vision.
▪️When the Soviet Union was collapsing in 1991, there were people saying, ‘Russia is selling land to buy time.’ Those were correct analyses.”
