Tag: Turkey

Trending ISTANBUL -- Coming from the airport into this city of about 15 million people and 5 million cars, as my driver describes it, I pass ancient Roman ruins and blocks of upscale shops; an old hotel where Agatha Christie penned "Murder on the Orient Express," smoke shops and modest restaurants, and luxury car dealers. It is a metaphor for the choices Turks are being forced to make under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: forward to a better future and a recapture of their secular state, or back to a nostalgic past when Islam was the official religion of the Ottoman Empire. Recent waves of terrorist attacks throughout the country have raised security levels. My car was stopped and given a cursory search before being allowed to proceed to the hotel entrance where I was then required to pass through a metal detector and have my hand luggage scanned before approaching the registration desk. It was the late president Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who helped establish the Republic of Turkey, modeled on Western governments and their belief in church-state separation. In addition to questions about Turkey's future role in NATO, how would a Turkish Islamic state change the fight against "radical Islamic terrorism," as President Trump called it until recently when that label seems to have disappeared from his rhetoric? Asked about Islamic terrorism, he responded: "Turkey is not a country where moderate Islam prevails. The word Islam is uninflected, it is only Islam." Who SHOULD decide is the larger question. Unfortunately, with their prospects declining, many Turks today worry that their future may not be anything in which they can take delight.