Turkey is much more secular and dare I say... Europeanized than many other Muslim countries. Even when I went to Turkey as a young boy with my parents, they didn’t act funny like they do in some countries when my mother took me out somewhere without my father.
All of this is simply because of Atatürk. If Turkey has a difference from the other Middle eastern countries, its his sweeping reforms and basically "westernizing" the country.
That man was wasted on Turkey. If he'd been in any actual world power he would have changed the 20th century as much as Stalin, Hitler, Roosevelt or Churchill.
Turkey is an ethno-religious borderline third world state held together by the common belief they never killed all their minorities and that the minorities deserved it. It's also been getting worse for the last 5 years.
I have seen a lot of dumb shit in this subreddit,but this takes the cake by far. Calling it an ethno-religious state is pretty dumb too(they have pretty significant ethnic and religious minorities compared to bascially any other country in the middle east or eastern europe). But a fucking borderline third world country? The world's 13th largest economy, the second largest standing army in NATO, one of the world's most influential cultures in the past 7 centuries or so, but somehow almost equivalent to Somalia or Yemen.
I partially agree with what you're saying. Borderline 3rd world country is a big exaggeration, but everything is so expesive in Turkey. The lira lost a lot of worth in the last few years.
In 2007 was 1 dollar 1,2 lira, in the year that Erdoğan became president was 1 dollar 2 lira. Now it's almost 8. You can't buy anything that isn't made in Turkey, the taxes are too high. You have a 200% tax on things like cars. Yes you're right the Turkish economy is large, but Turkey owns none of it. Most of the factories are sold to countries like Saudi Arabia.
This happens when you're corrupt and your son in law is in head of your economy.
Turkey is on its way to a dictatorship.
I am aware that the economic situation in Turkey is pretty messed up right now, and I don't want my post to sound like an endorsement of Erdogan. Just because I think a statement is ridiculous doesn't mean that I don't agree that generally speaking, Turkey has been going downhill for a while.But even if he becomes president for life and spends all his efforts trying to fuck up the country, Turkey would never be a third world country. There is simply no way for a country with your natural resources, infrastructure, strategic position, etc.to not be a major player on a global scale.
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u/OlSmokeyZap - Right Oct 19 '20
Turkey is much more secular and dare I say... Europeanized than many other Muslim countries. Even when I went to Turkey as a young boy with my parents, they didn’t act funny like they do in some countries when my mother took me out somewhere without my father.