Future of Turkey

Is Turkey's secular tradition eroding?

  • By:Brian Beary
  • Content Type: Report
  • Publisher: CQ Press
    • Publication year: 2007
    • Online pub date:
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/cqrglobal20071200

Introduction

For centuries the crossroad between East and the West, Turkey today finds itself at a crossroad of its own: The militant secularism installed in the 1920s by the country's founding father, Ataturk, is being challenged by an emerging middle class no longer willing to hide its Muslim beliefs. Meanwhile, the religiously conservative party that has governed Turkey since 2002 is pushing the country toward membership in the European Union, even though many Europeans don't want Muslim Turkey in their Christian club. While Turkey is often seen as role model for how democracy can co-exist with Islam, the historical enmity between Arabs and their non-Arab former Ottoman overlords limits the extent to which Turkey can be a stabilizing force in the region. Adding to Turkey's turmoil, ...

locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles