Quote Originally Posted by Hax View Post
Yep, and the last time I was in Turkey I was not in Istanbul or Izmir. But okay, let's go along for now, who the hell cares if someone has a scruffy beard or wears a headscarf? Just the fact that there are religious Muslims in Turkey who make up a part of the electorata, doesn't mean it's some kind of "Islamic autocracy". To suggest anything else is simply ridiculous.
Someone representing them has won a majority in the last few elections though. And that, after we'd been pressing the Kemalist establishment for more freedom and democracy in Turkey. In the future, perhaps it would be better if we were to wait until the majority were more like us in our belief in liberal democratic ideals, before pushing for more democracy. Pushing for majority rule where the majority are hostile to us isn't the cleverest of foreign policy directions.