Great economy, terrible politics
Turkey’s Erdoğan has made the country richer, even as he’s made its citizens insecure.
By Jason Goodwin
5/6/15, 3:39 PM CET
I wrote a thriller called The Janissary Tree in 2005, set in Istanbul of 1836. It played fast, but not too loose, with Ottoman Turkish history, having Sultan Mahmud II beset by difficulties and dangers as he attempted to drag the Ottoman Empire kicking and screaming into the 19th century. The sultan’s special agent was Yashim, a eunuch friendly with the sultan’s mother, the French-born Valide. It was a ripping yarn, portraying a world caught between the forces of modernity and tradition.
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