CIAO DATE: 10/2014
March 2011
Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis
The history of Turkey is one of boundless ambi-guities and contradictions. Once the center of the Islamic world, it now craves to be recogni-zed as a secular, Western state. Although it was founded as a free republic, its military has exer-cised almost-Third World authoritarian power over the civilian leadership. Turkey, geographi-cally, as well as ideologically, has been at the crossroads of the East and the West. Thus, few other countries can claim such a paradoxical mix of republicanism, authoritarianism, Isla-mism, and secularism.
Resource link: The Paradox of Turkish Civil Military Relations [PDF] - 956K