Turkey's resurgent role in Middle East

[TTL]

I am facinated by Turkey, as a nation. I don't know how it works, but it works. The idea of a secular nation, comprised by muslims, which has a democracy and yet the army safeguards it's secularity from the people is alien to me. I don't know how they make it work. If I didn't seen it in action, I would say that these two opposing forces would tear a antion apart.

Unfortunately it worked by sacrificing a bit of democracy. In Turkey the educated sections of society and especially the army had always watched the Islamists very carefully and crushed any diversion from the strictly secular system. But in the past 15 years we became much more democratic and free so AKP's rise was made possible.

IMO while Turkey benefits from increased freedoms the threat of Islamist Radicalism is still present. Erdogan might seem a democracy lover from outside but all I see is a populist government who uses religion and subsidizes to gather support from the uneducated masses. What he says and what his government really does is different, local cadres of AKP is full of bigots who are closed to any form of progress. For an example just recently the governor of Ordu tried to remove the urinals from the public toilets because he deemed them against Islamic rules. Such behaviour while seems unimportant is becoming common place in Turkey.

[Rastagir]

Unfortunately it worked by sacrificing a bit of democracy. In Turkey the educated sections of society and especially the army had always watched the Islamists very carefully and crushed any diversion from the strictly secular system. But in the past 15 years we became much more democratic and free so AKP's rise was made possible.

IMO while Turkey benefits from increased freedoms the threat of Islamist Radicalism is still present. Erdogan might seem a democracy lover from outside but all I see is a populist government who uses religion and subsidizes to gather support from the uneducated masses. What he says and what his government really does is different, local cadres of AKP is full of bigots who are closed to any form of progress. For an example just recently the governor of Ordu tried to remove the urinals from the public toilets because he deemed them against Islamic rules. Such behaviour while seems unimportant is becoming common place in Turkey.

I generally agree (from the outside view, always). However, two points here:

As time goes by more people will be educated; the world is becoming a smaller place and religion I think is losing it's grip, so the army's role as protector of secularism won't be that necessary in the future. Also the isolation/stagnation of Islamic nations is evident and I don't think that Turkish people in general will follow that road. They have eyes and they can see where this road leads them. My only worry is that one of two factions will get restless or panic of losing it;s grip and do something stupid ending in the other faction retaliating and spoiling all this hard work.

Furthermore, I don't think that we can easily blame the AKP for every transgression a party member is doing. Turkey is a big country, with a big population, and there are huge differences from region to region.

My opinion is that if there is a gradual and careful reduce of these two opposing forces (Radical Islam and the Army) through education of it's people, open mindness and goodwill from all sides, Turkey will come out as a powerful, democratic nation without losing it's identity.