Who had the not so bright idea to let Turkey into NATO?
err-DOG-an is an enemy.
poo-tin is an enemy.
ass-ad is an enemy.
isis is an enemy.
hezbollah is an enemy.
iran is an enemy.
Sounds like they should be left alone to duke things out.
No, he wants to be the 12th Mahdi/Ummah Caliph.
Erdogan wants a revival of the Caliphate in Istanbul.
Yes. I've known that ever since he was elected. He has been pushing for an Islamic state publicly and vocally, as well as by favoring Islam through government activity.
What happened was that the poorer Turks in the interior, who are strongly Muslim, outbred the more cosmopolitan Turks in the major cities. They then outvoted the more cosmopolitan ones. Erdogan knows where his votes come from.
Just for the record, when I was teaching a course in statistics at Marmara University in Istanbul, I used to use data from the Turkish census in my courses. I'd have students run statistical tests on the differences between age groups, regional groups, etc. Differences in such things as literacy, education level, etc. the trends were always toward more pro-Muslim, and lesser-educated.