[muawiyah]

The Turks would actually be dangerous if they regressed back to the days of the Seljuks, but they won't do that, so no worry.

We'd have to irradiate the place otherwise, and the Arabs would be cheering us on in that case.

Ignoring Ataturk for a moment, the Port made tremendous advances in its ability to handle modern foreign relations about the time of the American Revolution, and after the Greek Revolution was successful, they decided to clean up their internal act and develop the apparatus of a modern state.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

That still doesn't mitigate the fact that the experiment in secularism has failed.

Insofar as the carrot of EU membership has forced Turkey to moderate its policies on Kurds, Turkish-occupied Cyprus, and free speech issues, I suppose it's a good thing.

However, that doesn't mean they are moving in the right direction.

The only barrier to Islamic supremacy, i.e. the military, is slowly being hollowed out, and its role diminished, which is why I don't think you can seriously consider that nation a reliable ally in the future.

Couple that with the millions of home-grown Islamist Turks living and plotting in Germany and you have the seeds of Europe's undoing.