Quote Originally Posted by Tellos Athenaios View Post
Uhm, I'm not too sure that would be a good idea. We're talking principles from an era in which a totalitarian (at least nominally) secular centre - right regime was considered a civilised and perfectly kosher approach to government.

That aside, the issue is deeper: as far as I am aware the Erdogan admin still has a significant support among Turkey simply for being the guys who made "religion" in politics more accepted and mainstream. So they can still count on a significant share of the conservative vote. That is not because Erdogan is necessarily a proper humble and honest Allah-fearing, law-abiding, 5-times-a-day worshiper of the faith; it is because religion has been repressed for years.

Turkey needs to find a more grown up way of dealing with the Turks that happen to hold different view points.
This seems to me to be the nub of it.

Ataturk essentially enforced secularism upon the collapsing Turkish Empire. He did it in a way that worked, and which has made Turkey into a functioning democracy with a thriving economy.

HOWEVER, Ataturk's reforms were never a long-term alternative to an Islamic State and until very recently no thought was given to disseminating the Elite's secular principles down to the general populace. So, in the end, you have the same problem as Iran had in the 1970's. Secularism has been enforced, and embraced by the middle class, but the working class and the rural poor are not really very secular.

The difference with Turkey is that, hopefully, the rural poor and working class recognise that the secular constitution is better than enforcement of Sharia.

I hear Erdogan has started restricting the sale of alcohol during the day - here's hoping that doesn't sit well with the majority brand of Turkish Islam.