He seeks to restore the glory of the Ottoman Empire stretching from Morocco to China, and from Vienna to Mecca, to modern day Turkey. In so doing, he has made many enemies.
Erdogan seeks to overthrow the secular traditions that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk instituted with the end of the Turkish Caliphate in 1923. For decades, the Kemalists banned the Arabic alphabet in favor of the Latin. Clothing followed the European model, women were elevated under the secular system, and Islam was pretty much frowned upon as a backward system impeding national progress.
However, as the decades passed and the poverty-stricken, more traditional, agrarian Turks flocked to the big cities seeking work, the majority of Turks returned to the pre-Kemalist values and gradually reinstated the customs of the past, thus annulling the innovations of Western Civilization and democracy.
Secondly, Turkish emigration to Europe brought about a rebirth in Turkish revanchism or re-conquest of Europe. As a result, the Europeans are becoming increasing suspicious of Turkey and the masses of ethnic...
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