• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Can someone explain Turkey to me?

Humes fork

Banned
Humes fork
Joined
Jul 9, 2011
Messages
3,358
Turkey in modern history is a state that is strictly secular. Istanbul is a rather cosmopolitan city complete with such infidel things like financial districts and a stock exchange (from what I understand in the Muslim world these things tend to correlate with secularization).

Yet the secularity of the country as a whole appears to often be enforced at gunpoint by the army. Just 1% of the Turkish population are atheists and they repeatedly voted for the soft-Islamist Erdogan.

But apparently people are rather pissed at Erdogan and his vatious Islamization measures. Apparently secularism has appeal outside the army.

So how is Turkey divided politically and culturally? What issues dominate?
 
As I said in one of the other threads on the riots in Turkey, the paradox of Erdogan's AK Party is that while their ideology is based on political Islam, they're also the strongest pro-EU party. Most Turks, at least the young and progressive ones, really want Turkey to join the EU.

You do find some really conservative, and even some extremist, Muslims in Turkey, especially in rural areas in the east, but although the population is mostly religious, most people are of the pretty relaxed kind - especially compared to other Islamic countries in the Middle East.
 
It's good meat - especially if cooked preperly in a Big Green Egg - and the juices/fat make wonderful gravy or soup ( for my purposes here: the gravy is concentrated soup OR the soup is slightly diluted gravy. I am not particular on this as the taste is phenomenal either way.
 
strictly secular

Not sure I agree with how you described Turkey.

The form of government established under Mustafah Kamal and the Young Turks was explicitly separated from the style previous to it, the Claliphate.

Turkey's people are not "strictly secular" by any means, though some doubtless are. As to the Military Guaranteeing the secular nature of the government, dead on. As my Turkish colleagues in NATO work explained to me, that is their obligation: to protect their Constitution against reversion to the theocratic form. It's more complicated than that, of course, but that's a short answer to you broad question.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom