"Turkey at the Turning Point?
By Christopher de Bellaigue
It is now clear that Turkey, a country to which Western visitors have often applied adjectives such as 'timeless' and 'slothful,' is changing profoundly, and with un-Oriental speed. To the many Turks who welcome this transformation, it holds out the promise of a free public culture, equally open to devout Muslims, secularists, and critics of Turkey's past politics—something the country has never known. A smaller but nonetheless considerable number see the changes as a Trojan horse for Islamism as severe as one finds in Iran or Saudi Arabia. These two views come into sharp conflict on the subject of Abdullah Gül, whom the Turkish parliament recently elected president."
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