Ataturk almost was successful transforming a Muslim country into a modern state. Almost but not quite. Sadly Turkey is reverting to backwardness. Too bad the Turks when they had their chance decided to embrace the quasi socialism of the Europeans. If they had embraced productive capitalism, they would have had far fewer impoverished, poorly educated people who were so susceptible to Islamic fundamentalism.
When Erdogan goes, it will be by assassination, because he’ll never give up power willingly. He and his fellow Islamofascists amended the Turkish constitution to allow, well, Islamofascist rule (previously the army had a constitutional role, removal of sectarian despots).
Alas, when Erdogan is gone, we’ll look back at this as the good old days. His successors will be worse.
Meanwhile, Turkey still plays the role of the cork in the bottle. Erdogan’s attempt at building a regional economic zone including Iran and Syria failed miserably. His hostility and bigotry toward Israel began early, and the end result is, the only halfway decent relationship Turkey has with its neighbors is with — hold on — Greece. THAT’S how bad off they are.