Replies

Good article. Turkey is very important to us, as it’s been, for decades, a model of democratic government in the Islamic world.

I was there in 1993. I’ve been to 22 countries, and this was my favorite. Went at Christmas with a Jewish friend. Istanbul had more Christmas decorations up than my small leftist politically correct community in WA state. Istanbul was and probably still mostly is an urbane, sophisticated city. We saw about three women in burqas, the rest wore pretty much what you’d see in a not-wealthy American city, though maybe 1/3 of the women did wear head scarves to cover their hair.

I am blonde and female, went around the country in jeans and a blue leather jacket, friend could not have been more obviously Jewish. We were welcomed with real warmth everywhere, even in small towns that were much more conservative than Istanbul. I had one meeting with a Turkish woman dressed in pretty traditional Turkish garb and head scarf...we couldn’t communicate with words, but we liked each other immediately and burst out laughing at our differences, which were so extremely superficial.

The election of Erdogan was a horrible mistake. The peasantry in eastern Turkey apparently voted with one Islamic voice, no doubt spurred on by teachers in madrassas funded by Saudi fundamentalists who have been very busy erecting these centers of treachery and deceit.

Turkey is our chance to effect people in the Middle East in a positive way, but I’m not seeing anything remotely like decent policy toward that country from our State Dept under Bush or Obama. If we lose Turkey as a bastion of democratic thought in the region, we are total idiots. The smart people there love their freedom. But the Islamists can somehow talk them into slavery-—just because they keep talking. What are WE saying to them?

I’m Shery’s daughter. We lived in Turkey for 6 years when I was growing up. I loved it there. Turkey, however, is deeply divided between radical populations further to the east and more secularized people in the western part of the country. Erdogan had the support of the more Islamist part of the country that is eager for Turkey to become a major player in the Muslim world. This is also Erdogan’s desire. I feel for the more Westernized populations of Turkey because they truly want democracy. They have even held marches in support of their smaller Christian segment of the population, a few years ago when a few Turkish pastors were brutally murdered for being Christians. And there have been marches for animal rights - something we never would have seen when I was living there. What we hear of most in the West is Turkey’s moderate or more secular segments of society, but Turkey has its fair share of Islamists. We don’t hear much about it in our media, but girls are still murdered in honour killings there, hands are still cut of for stealing, people are arrested, held and beaten before they are charged with anything, and some women are still stoned for being raped. And it has been that way all along. Istanbul is not typical of the rest of the nation. But, if Turks will unite and not back down, insist on truly democratic change - which it seems more and more of its people want - then Turkey could be a bastion of hope to its neighboring Muslim nations who also have a few democracy lovers in their midst.