Should Muslim world be voting for Turkey?

I HAVE just returned from what us old hacks (and hackettes) like to call a “fact-finding mission” to Turkey.

Turkey, as we all know, is positioned at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, and is “a veritable melting pot of cultures, often called the cradle of the civilised world”.

Who calls it that you’re wondering. Why, the bloke who wrote the brochure I pinched it from, that’s who.

But today Turkey is at its own crossroads. As a secular Muslim state ever since the great Ataturk took power in 1923, it guarantees freedom of religion and is, if you like, a model of what modern Islam might become – if the fundamentalists are faced down. The powerful Turkish military has already warned the Islamic government it will face a backlash from the armed forces if it tries to alter the country’s secular system. General Isik Kosaner, one of the most senior commanders, has pledged to defend “the fundamental characteristics of the republic”.

Which is good news for Turkey’s women who are not bound by the burka or fears of fanatics.

Should Muslim world be voting for Turkey? – WalesOnline.