Ottoman officer edges away from infidel (3)
I believe the answer is:
aga
'ottoman officer' is the definition.
'aga' can be an answer for 'officer' (I have seen 'Chief officer' mean 'aga' so perhaps 'officer' could also mean 'aga'). I am not sure about the 'ottoman' bit.
'edges away from infidel' is the wordplay.
'edges away' indicates the central letters (I've seen 'edging away' mean this).
'from' becomes 'emanative' (I've seen this before).
'infidel' becomes 'ga' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The middle of 'emanative' is 'a'.
'a'+'ga'='AGA'
(Other definitions for aga that I've seen before include "Turkish leader" , "Turkish governor" , "military leader" , "Heavy metal stove" , "Cooking range" .)