[a_Turk]

Oddly enough, if you follow the link I provided in the first paragraph above, and then continue with the Leaders and Revolutionaries link, you won't see Ataturk listed. His name was eliminated by the staff of Time Magazine...

The author is a bit fatalistic. The Turkish political scene is undergoing a reorg. There's no need for worry about Islamists. There are two Islamist parties, one fundamentalist (old people) and the other progressive (young people), their combined share in the vote is about 20%, and they do not get along with each other.

The Prime Minister just pressured the Foreign Minister and the Economy Czar to resign, which they did. The President, however, immediately pressured the Prime Minister to cancel the resignation of the Economy Czar, who then withdrew his resignation. The President is a figure who wields some power in keeping the politicians in line. 25 years ago, it would have been the military yelling at the PM.

[a_Turk]

ping

[Shermy]

Sounds like good news. Unless Time sells a third of its magazines in Turkey, this would show that the "Young Turks" are computer savvy and wired to the net, and know how to freep!

:)

"Lo-fat"?

Turkish Cheeses

[Aric2000]

The writer of this piece does not have a clue of how Turkey works. THE SKY IS FALLING, can't count on Turkey, it's gonna be a mess. BS, if fundamentalists somehow miraculously got into power, the military would move in so fast that it would make the fundamentalists heads spin.

Turkey is the one country in the region that we count on, the sky is not falling, and will not be allowed to fall. The military takes it's job VERY seriously and will handle it if it ever came to that.

[happygrl]

Attaturk is an unacknowledged (by the West) hero of the 20th Century.

Do you know of a good biography of Attaturk ?

[EternalHope]

Sounds like your politics are just as convoluted as here in the U.S. Thanks for the extra comments telling us not to worry. (Good luck, and I hope you're right!)