"Turkey is 98% plus muslim. It is against the law to start a Christian church or even give somebody a Bible. The gov't has shut down both existing churches and Christian radio stations."
thanks for all the good info. it dovetails nicely with what I know.
but it is also true that Islam was heavily suppressed by Atatürk, is that not so? and in fact, this guy who is currently President was jailed a few years ago for a violent Islamacists poem. Right? so it appears that there really has been a pretty big change recently, with regard to Islam.
I take your point on the shallowness of their "alliance".
I believe the EU will definitely reject them from any kind of membership. the EU wants to commit suicide---but not that rapidly. This rejection will send Turkey bouncing fully into the Muslim world pretty hard.
Ataturk did not 'surpress' islam. He did modernize turkey and move it away from being a caliphate...but that is not the same thing as surpressing the religion. It is the military that has kept turkey from descending into a sharia-law country since his death.