The secularists in Turkey haven't underestimated religion, they just made the mistake of believing they could control it with the power of the army alone.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
No Muslim country has ever done as much as Turkey to make itself over in the image of a European nation-state; the country's westernised elite brutally imposed secularism, among other things, on its devout population of peasants.
Turkey is immersed in a profound social and political conflict between secularists, who have been in power since the republic was founded, and an insurgent Islamic-based movement that seeks to increase the role of religion in public life.
It is beneficial for Turkish democracy that not all religious conservatives are united under one banner.
I don't much care whether rural Anatolians or Istanbul secularists take power. I'm not close to any of them. What I care about is respect for the individual.
Bear in mind how valuable a secular Turkey is for the world.
Foreign journalists writing about Turkey like to focus on the most fundamental divide in Turkish society: the rift between religious conservatives and secularists.
Politicians use religion, and they get their troops riled up with religion.
At the end of the 30 Years War then, Europe broadly decided to separate the sacred from the secular in its political culture. I know that is an oversimplification, but it is instructive, and it led to a growth in religious tolerance that has characterized the best of Western life since.
There's been quite a clear upswing in nationalist sentiments. Everyone is talking about it, in Turkey as well.
Religion often is misused for purely power-political goals, including war.
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