Wednesday, September 21st, 2016
Stephan: Three years ago I had the opportunity to spend several weeks in Turkey, a country to which I had never been. I had lived in Egypt for almost two years, and had previously traveled through other nations in the middle east when I worked for National Geographic, and I thought I had a pretty good take on what Islamic countries and cities were like. Turkey taught me that my suppositions were wrong. Turkey was a modern country, which treated women fairly, and was a functioning democracy. Attaturk who created the modern Turkish state was very clear about what Turkey was supposed to be like. He banned religious garments, made government workers dress in Western business dress, and saw that the schools actually taught something other than religion.
Now, as this report lays out, all that is coming unraveled and Turkey is reverting to an Islamic dictatorship. I would argue this is yet another manifestation of the complete disruption of the Middle East.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey in Ankara last month. Two months after a failed military coup, a wide-scale purge led by Mr. Erdogan has reached witch-hunt proportions, according to a growing chorus of critics.
Credit Turkish Presidential Office, via European Pressphoto Agency
ISTANBUL — Candan Badem teaches history at a university in southern Turkey, is a socialist and does not believe in God. But he lost his job and was hauled in by the police and accused of being a loyalist to a shadowy Islamic cleric who lives in exile in Pennsylvania.
The evidence against him: A book written by the cleric, Fethullah Gulen, was found in his office.
“It was like a bad joke,” said Mr. Badem, who says he believes the real reason he was targeted was that he signed a petition […]
