Talking Turkey

Submitted by Nazim Cairo (United Kingdom), Dec 27, 2012 at 10:06

Great to see a positive and caricature-free view of Turkey and is much appreciated that adversarial positions like yours is more nuanced. Majority of Muslim Turkish population never consumed much pork, but had a soft spot towards alcohol - raki being a staple for a White Turk - this habit will be slowly squeezed out. However tourist areas probably will not be affected.

Seriously though, there is no electable alternative to AKP and some economic or political crisis notwithstanding they will stay. But Turkey has many crises points, probably more than other countries in the region. None of the questions like Kurdish rights have so far been addressed, so if he goes too dictatorial violence and terrorism against the state are guaranteed, like in 1970s. Global expansion and regional dominance is the only escape from this perennial illness.

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