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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not well-known outside of Turkey yet. But he is becoming notorious for his violent and radical actions as leader as well as for his increasingly bellicose nature on the world stage.

SEE ALSO: 10 Reasons The Syrian War Is Even Worse Than You Imagined

He speaks loudly, acts brutally, and has done everything he can to turn Turkey, a place that had recently been quite democratic, into a dictatorship with him at the helm. As his ill star rises, the whole world is beginning to learn much more about the man who has been described by some of his own people as the Hitler of our generation.

Not long ago, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad came under fire for allegedly using chemical weapons against his own people. The international community went into an uproar about the very possibility, and it was this suspicion that was used as justification for the United States to start heavily arming and helping some of the rebels.

Although it has never been proven that Assad used chemical weapons against his people, many are still convinced of his guilt. Unfortunately, he is not the only Middle Eastern leader to have recently come under suspicion for such a heinous form of warfare.

President Erdogan of Turkey has long been fighting the Kurds on every front possible. Although he has tried to negotiate with them somewhat in the past, he mostly labels them all as terrorists. He arrests them and pretends to befriend them while doing the best he can to permanently remove their rights and any real power they have.

Some Kurds have been trying to establish safe havens in countries like Syria and Iraq for years, but Erdogan is having none of it. He has long pushed back against the Kurds attempts to build any kind of stronghold. In 2011, Erdogan was suspected of using chemical weapons in an attack on a Kurdish village. Of course, he denied it.[1]

Erdogans relationship with the West is a rather strange one. On the one hand, he has a lot of strategic alliances with Western countries. On the other hand, he doesnt like how the West constantly bothers him about human rights, democracy, and refraining from genocide against the Kurds.

He visited Washington, DC, on a couple of occasions to talk to US President Donald Trump. They seemed to be getting along well at first. However, on both occasions, Erdogan ordered his goons to attack peaceful protesters outside his venues on US soil.

Several of these Turkish nationals have been charged in US courts with assault. Of course, Erdogan responded with an angry denunciation of the entire US court system. Although the White House has not spoken out about the actions of Erdogans security detail, perhaps for diplomatic reasons, the reaction of our court system could not make it any clearer as to how the US feels about that kind of behavior.[2]

Erdogan should also be careful with how he handles himself. Lately, he has been speaking in ways that make him an enemy of all his Western allies. If he keeps isolating himself from his strategic partners, he may find himself completely alone before too long.

Erdogan is known for doing whatever it takes to silence the opposition. In his eyes, anyone who doesnt entirely agree with him is the opposition by default. He is known for suspending peoples passports to force them back to Turkey for punishment or even threatening their families in Turkey to get them to return.

Often, this occurs simply because they said something that was critical of their leader. Anyone with a legitimate political following who could democratically unseat Erdogan is seen as the most vicious enemy possible and must be destroyed at all costs.

Erdogans worst nightmare is a man named Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric who is living in his own little compound in Pennsylvania. Gulen is hiding out from the budding dictator and mostly keeping to himself in his frail old age.

Despite living in the United States, Gulen has a lot of influence in Turkey. As a result, Erdogan has been trying to get Gulen extradited for years.

Erdogan has been unsuccessful because the United States will not extradite without a valid criminal reason, which the Turkish government has thus far been unable to provide. Erdogan tried again after the 2016 attempted coup by blaming Gulen for it. The Turkish president strove to get Gulen extradited on those grounds, but the US government refused his request.[3]

The Turkish government run by Erdogan is also causing a lot of trouble in Syria. There, he is helping rebels, some of whom are as bad as ISIS or who splintered off from ISIS at some point. Erdogan has a specific objective in mind. He simply hates the Kurdish people and wants them eliminated at all costs. Any Kurdish cities, whether established or in the process of being set up, are seen as a threat to his desire to destroy all Kurds. So they must be stopped.

His efforts recently led to the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Armya despicable and brutal rebel groupseizing Afrin, a city that was populated almost entirely by Kurdish people. During the taking of the city, Turkish artillery reportedly targeted Kurdish civilians as they fled from the violence and into the hills.[4]

Erdogan acted as though a great victory against evil had been achieved. He has started to refer to every Kurd as a terrorist or someone affiliated with terrorists in an effort to dehumanize themall while backing groups that are as bad as ISIS or were previously affiliated with ISIS.

Erdogan is supposed to be a Western ally. Yet he is fighting against Western-backed Kurdish groups and is willing to burn diplomacy to the ground to enact his hateful and destructive agenda.

In July 2016, there was an attempted coup in Turkey. Tanks rolled through the streets, and over 200 people were dead before the ordeal ended. At least on the surface, the coup came close to actually unseating Erdogans government and potentially capturing or killing him.

Erdogan blamed the coup on Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, who has been living in the United States since the 1990s, and claimed that factions of the military loyal to Gulen had worked with him to take over the country. After hearing immediate calls for his extradition, Gulen spoke to the US media and said he believed the coup may have been staged by Erdogan. The Turkish presidents alleged motive was to bolster his power and make it easier to punish political rivals like Gulen.

This accusation may never be proven satisfactorily one way or the other. However, Gulen said that past coups have been better planned and better executed, which led him to believe that the 2016 event was only meant to look like a coup and was not supposed to succeed.[5]

Whether the coup was real or not, those who thought Erdogan would use it as a chance to crack down hard on political enemies and any dissidents had their worst fears confirmed quickly.

When the attempted coup went down in 2016, people were legitimately concerned about a nuclear stockpile potentially ending up in the hands of either a violent dictator like Erdogan or an unstable new government put in place after the coup. The reason for this fear was the Incirlik Air Base that is located in southern Turkey.

Although it is a Turkish air base, it is also used by the US Air Force, the Royal Air Force, and others. Incirlik is mostly used as a staging post to conduct raids on ISIS in Iraq and Syria. But it still houses NATOs nuclear stockpile of approximately 50 B-61 hydrogen bombs, which could do a considerable amount of damage.

During the coup, the base went into lockdown. This left a lot of people wondering about NATOs strategy to stop a potentially hostile or unstable power from getting their hands on nuclear weapons in this type of situation. Also, could NATO implement a process that safely destroyed the capability of these nuclear weapons before the base was overrun?[6]

Although things did stabilize after the coup, some people are still worried that no such strategy can ever be secure enough. With the situation rapidly worsening, these people believe that NATO should remove all nuclear weapons from the region to ensure that no one like Erdogan can get them.

Erdogan claims that he dislikes only Kurdish terrorists and denies that he wants to arrest, destroy, or banish all Kurds in his country. But his own actions constantly reveal his sinister motives.

After the coup attempt, he repeatedly claimed in public that the man responsible was Fethullah Gulen, the Islamic cleric hiding in the United States. However, shortly after the coup attempt, Erdogan used his emergency powers to crack down hard on Kurds living in Turkey and arrest scores of people.

Some Kurdish politicians believe that a slow-moving coup by Erdogan is being enacted upon them. In 2015, a year before the coup attempt, a party of Kurdish people in Turkey won enough seats to become a true political threat. Erdogans party could not even secure enough seats to run the government on their own without a runoff election.

Since the coup attempt, almost 3,000 Kurdish politicians have been arrested and the mayors of nearly every major Kurdish town in Turkey have been put in jail.[7] Erdogan would have you believe that all these people were involved in the coup. Not only is it unlikely that these thousands of people were involved, but its even more improbable that they would work with Gulena man who is no friend of the Kurdish people.

Erdogan may be a wannabe dictator, but he is also somewhat delusional. He doesnt understand that he lacks the military and economic power to sustain a long-term war against the West.

His hatred of the Kurds has affected his judgment so much that he is picking fights with an ally like the US that could easily become a dangerous enemy. After seizing the Kurdish city of Afrin, a move that did not sit well with the United States, Erdogan and his Syrian rebel allies set their sights on the Kurdish city of Manbij in early 2018.[8]

However, things could get ugly really fast this time. The US uses Manbij to train Kurdish and Arab fighters. Even if America lost it temporarily, its likely that they would take it back almost instantly with a huge military force.

If Turkey throws their weight into attacking Manbij, they could risk open war with a power that is far greater from an economic and military standpoint. Meanwhile, Turkeys military is spread thin with multiple ambitious operations in the Middle East and increasing military operations at home to crack down on dissidents.

Erdogan has threatened the United States with an Ottoman slap if they do not abandon one of their key strongholds, something the United States is obviously not going to do. Considering that Turkey has nowhere near the power of the Ottoman Empire, Erdogan is only embarrassing himself. He will either look ridiculous for not backing up his words with action or stupid for trying to smack down the superior military force of the United States.

Erdogan has used the 2016 coup attempt to cement his authoritarian rule as much as possible, and he is succeeding at a breakneck pace. First, he got the parliament to give him emergency powers to essentially rule by dictate. (The Turkish parliament is made up almost entirely of politicians from Erdogans party, which he rigidly controls.)

After that, he conducted massive arrests under the guise of taking down people who were involved in the coup. He has also shut down over 130 media organizations. In the early days, he arrested close to 100 journalists. Many have deemed it a witch hunt as no coup attempt seems to justify shutting down nearly all media outlets that dont entirely agree with the ruling party (or arresting journalists who fall into the same category).[9]

Since the coup, Erdogan has also booted scores of teachers from their positions, fired tens of thousands of civil servants, and arrested well over 100,000 people in total. Some have been waiting for many months to even have a specific charge leveled against them, so there is little expectation of fair or speedy trials.

Democracy is disappearing fast in Turkey, and Erdogan is muscling his way through with pure force in a way that no one in Turkey may be able to stop right now. Even protesting peacefully is forbidden if you dont want to get caught up in Erdogans sweeps. The emergency powers that allow him to rule this way will likely be extended indefinitely.

Although Turkey was a country that used to work with multiple political parties and term limits, Erdogan has been doing everything he can to become a dictator. As his party has become stronger, they have sometimes chanted a slogan that translates to one party or one-man rule.[10]

Those who are loyal to Erdogan believe that only his political party should be allowed to exist. He appoints the members of his party and, as president, chooses all judges and ministers, so he has complete control over Turkey with no check on his power. Death is the only thing that can unseat him.

In 2017, a referendum passed in Turkey that allows Erdogan to continue in office until 2029 as long as he keeps winning elections. Thats easy when you have a stranglehold on the entire political system and dont allow other parties to properly run.

The referendum also gave the president much more power on a permanent basis (rather than an emergency one). Those who voted against the referendum feared what it would do to Turkey. Even if Erdogan was gone, the countrys laws would be shaped to make the current leader into a mostly unchecked dictator. Undoing this would take a lot of political effort in the future.

With most of his internal enemies gone and any uprisings currently quashed, Erdogan is well on his way to becoming ruler of Turkey for life.

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Members of an internally-displaced Syrian family sit together outside a tent near the wall in Atmah IDP camp, located near the border with Turkey, Feb. 26, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Khalil Ashawi / File.

Turkeys war with the Assad regime in Syria brings to mind the words of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War: We wish both sides the best of success.

Turkeys recent invasion of Syria was aimed not at the Kurds, for a change, but at the Assad regime, as well as its supporters from the Axis of Resistance. The ceasefire announced between Ankara and Moscow is unlikely to last. Previous Russian attempts at finding a diplomatic solution in Syria have all ended in failure. Furthermore, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan needs to achieve a complete victory on behalf of the rebellion in Idlib if he wishes to remain in power.

Turkeys airstrikes in Syria killed nine members of Hezbollah, several Shiite militiamen supported by Iran, and dozens of Syrian troops. In response, Iran warned Ankara against targeting its people, noting that Turkish bases are in Tehrans range of fire. It also sent more militiamen to aid the regime in recapturing Idlib.

Turkeys attacks were viewed as justified by much of the international community. They came after Syrian-Russian airstrikes on Idlib massacred hundreds of innocent civilians and killed dozens of Turkish soldiers.

March 30, 2020 10:24 am

Turkey has NATOs second-biggest army, and it is well-positioned to deal severe damage to the Syrian regime. Given that both Assad and Vladimir Putin are widely despised, it is unlikely that Turkeys venture into Syria which has damaged Damascus tanks, air defenses, jets, and military bases will come under censure.

At the same time, it is unlikely that Ankara will go so far as to provoke Russia by killing Assad or directly engaging Russian troops. Turkey, while a formidable military power in its own right, cannot challenge Russia. Nor would its more influential or stronger NATO partners allow it to take such steps. Nobody wants a third world war, particularly over the likes of Syria. It is, however, possible that the West and Israel would provide diplomatic support and perhaps arms or intelligence to Ankara, as they all share common goals: to degrade Assads regime, prove that Russia is still relatively powerless in the region, and evict Iran from Syria.

Iran and its proxies are in an unenviable position. President Donald Trumps sanctions campaign has left Irans economy in a terrible recession. Unless the coronavirus crisis upends his prospects, Trump is unlikely to be removed from office in November, meaning that in all likelihood, the sanctions will stay and even intensify. Irans top general, Qassem Soleimani, was killed by a US drone strike in January, along with its leading commander of the Iraqi Shiite militias, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner, widespread protests within the country, and the coronavirus outbreak have worsened Irans isolation, further crippled the economy, and sapped the regimes internal legitimacy.

The Islamic Republic does not have the funds to continue waging war in Syria. In its near-abroad, its forces are being targeted in the south by the Israelis (Syria), in the north by the Turks (Syria), in the west by the Americans (Iraq), and perhaps soon from the east by the Taliban.

The American deal with the Taliban is likely to see the group refocus its attention on its historic enemy Shiite Iran. The Iranian government may soon have to redeploy its Shiite Afghan mercenaries from Syria to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban and other Sunni jihadists there, further undermining its ability to fulfill its goals in Syria.

No matter how many personnel Iran transfers from Iraq or Lebanon, they will continually be targeted by enemy forces. The regime has neither the money nor the manpower to sustain this kind of indefinite upkeep, especially with anti-Iranian sentiment continuing to simmer in Beirut and Baghdad.

With the spread of coronavirus in both Iraq and Lebanon, the economic paralysis in Lebanon, and the Iran-related sanctions weakening Hezbollah, the Iranian regime will have limited capability to enter into a war with Israel anytime soon giving the Jewish state more time to improve its capabilities and prepare for such a war in the future.

A combination of economic, diplomatic, and health threats as well as the Turkish invasion of Syria is distracting the attention of the Iranians, Russians, and others, which is giving Israel cover to continue attacking Iran-related sites in Syria and Iraq. This aligns with Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennetts stated goal of extirpating the Iranians from Syria by the beginning of 2021.

While the Turks are busy pursuing Assad and his Shiite allies, they will have less latitude to pursue their goals in Libya or Kurdistan. The Kurds, like Turkey and Israel, are interested in seeing a weakening of the Iranian presence in Syria and Iraq. If the Turkish army is otherwise engaged, its possible that the Kurds will be able to claw back some of their territory that was occupied by Ankara. With Russia and Assad weaker and more distracted, the Kurds might be able to either demand more from them in a deal in which they join a new Syria, or assist the Syrian army against the Turks. Theoretically, this could lead to Kurdish autonomy or a promise of equal rights in a united Syria, though this is unlikely unless extremist Shiite forces are completely expunged from the region or unequivocally defeated.

Given that Ankara is facing the entire Axis of Resistance and must prepare for the possibility of a widening of the conflict to include Russia, it cannot expand its plans for Libya or the Kurds. General Khalifa Haftar is likely to take advantage of this situation and seize as much territory as he can from the Turkish-backed forces in Syria and Libya with whom he is battling. The fact that Turkey is backing jihadist elements loyal to ISIS and Al-Qaeda means it is not likely to receive any concrete Western military aid in that operation indeed, it is more likely to face greater international scrutiny as the operation drags on and human suffering increases.

Turkeys expulsion of Syrian refugees from its territory into Europe which has so far been blocked by the Greek military and police is unlikely to gain it much sympathy in Brussels. It is more likely to turn Europeans against Ankara and promote the advancement of the kind of far-right governments Erdogan rails against.

In the end, it is possible that a combination of Israeli and Turkish military force, as well as external factors, will severely weaken the Assad regime, degrade and destroy Hezbollah and Shiite mercenaries in Syria, and force the Iranians out of the country. However, the Turks will probably be forced out as well. The world will not tolerate Ankaras backing of extremist elements, nor allow it to drag Russia and NATO into a world war.

It is likely that Turkey will leave Assad in power for fear of provoking Russia too much and then leave, having failed to redesign Syria and Kurdistan in line with its neo-Ottoman aspirations. More Turkish troops will come home in coffins on behalf of a regime that is shunned by its own people as well as the UN. The countrys ailing economy wont allow for victory in Libya either. Russia will have done its job of keeping Assad alive, probably to retake Idlib from jihadists in the future and allow for the repatriation of refugees.

But Assad will be loathed by the world after having committed terrible atrocities. His economy will be destitute and he will have little real power, leaving him reliant on Moscow for protection. Russia too will be seen as a country that could not use diplomacy to achieve its aims and had to resort to violence and war crimes. This will most likely propel the Arab Gulf countries back toward the US and Europe.

Whatever the international community might think about it, Moscow will likely end up with sole dominion over Syria, having evicted Turkey and Iran its two historic imperial rivals from the country. This should prevent a Syrian-Israeli war and could even, in theory, lead to peace between the two countries. It could also lead to more rights for the Kurdish people in Syria including autonomy unless they become united enough to push for independence once again.

The Turkish intervention has the potential to bring down both neo-Ottomanism and the radical Shiite revolution that Iran has been trying to spread. Again lets wish both sides the best of success.

Dmitri Shufutinsky is a graduate of Arcadia Universitys Masters program in International Peace& Conflict Resolution. He lives in Kibbutz Erez, Israel as a Lone Soldier in the Garin Tzabar program. He was drafted into Michve Alon on December 15.

A version of this article was originally published by The BESA Center.

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Turkey's Intervention in Syria Could Bring Down Erdogan and Iran - Algemeiner

Turkeys Erdogan and Russias Putin in Zhukovsky, Russia, on August 27, 2019(Sputnik / Aleksey Nikolskyi / Kremlin via Reuters)

Putin and Erdogan are meeting in Sochi. That resort town is for more than the Olympics. The meeting, said the New York Times, is an opportunity for Putin and Erdogan to consolidate their gains in Syria in the wake of President Trumps sudden withdrawal of American troops. Talks between the two men highlight the loss of American influence in the days sinceMr. Trump ordered troops to withdrawfrom northeast Syria.

At the airport in Ankara, before he left for Russia, Erdogan said something almost touching: With my dear friend Putin, we will discuss the current situation...

It is a new world, yes, one that some Americans like, a lot, and one that others of us think is ominous. Last year, after his latest fraudulent election, Erdogan staged his latest inauguration. The list of attendees was instructive, and predictable: Medvedev of Russia (standing in for Putin). Orbn of Hungary. Maduro of Venezuela.

Maduro pronounced Erdogan a leader of the new multi-polar world which is accurate.

The year before, Orbn had said, We all sense its in the air that the world is in the process of a substantial realignment. He was meeting with Putin who hailed Hungary as an important and reliable partner for Russia in Europe.

That is certainly true.

After the Americans cleared out and Erdogan invaded Syria, Erdogan met with Orbn, in Baku. The Turk thanked the Hungarian for his support on the world stage as well he might have. Orbn has, for example, blocked EU resolutions against Turkey.

Two articles this week tell us about Putin and Orbn, and their influence on Trump their influence on him when it comes to Ukraine, in particular. For a Times report, go here; for a Washington Post report, go here. Putin and Orbn hate Ukraine, of course. Ukraine is a new democracy under siege. Indeed, Putin is warring against Ukraine, literally.

A State Department official, George Kent, testified before Congress on Ukraine. Specifically, he addressed the question of why our president is thinking and acting the way he is. Putin and Orbn have filled Trumps head a receptive head, to be sure.

Let me bless the names of two other officials: John R. Bolton and Fiona Hill. Bolton, as you know, was until recently Trumps national security adviser; Hill, until recently, was the leading Russia expert on the National Security Council staff.

Earlier this year, Trump received Orbn at the White House. According to the Times, Bolton and Hill opposed this development. They believed that Orbn did not deserve the honor of an Oval Office visit, which would be seen as a huge political coup for an autocratic leader ostracized by many of his peers in Europe. Mick Mulvaney, the chief of staff, or acting chief of staff, was enthusiastic about the visit, as he is about Orbn.

No one is more enthusiastic than Trump. Its like were twins, Trump said to Orbn. We learned this from David Cornstein, an old friend of Trumps who is now our ambassador in Budapest. Orbn has built an illiberal regime that some find enviable. Listen to Ambassador Cornstein: I can tell you, knowing the president for a good 25 or 30 years, that he would love to have the situation that Viktor Orbn has, but he doesnt.

Finally, listen to Mark Esper, our new secretary of defense: We had no obligation, if you will, to defend the Kurds from a longstanding NATO ally, meaning Turkey. So now NATO is important, in the minds of the Trump administration? We must oblige the anti-American, Islamist dictatorship of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but were not so sure about the liberal democracies of Europe?

It is a new world, ladies and gentlemen, and as conservatives know all too well, new is not necessarily good.

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Trump, Putin, Erdogan, and Orbn, and Our New World ...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday called for a solution through dialogue for the Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India.

In his address at the UN General Assembly session in New York, Erdogan criticised the international community for failing to pay attention to the Kashmir conflict, which, he said, awaits solution for 72 years.

The president said the stability and prosperity of South Asia cannot be separated from the Kashmir issue.

"In order for the Kashmiri people to look at a safe future together with their Pakistani and Indian neighbors, it is imperative to solve the problem through dialogue and on the basis of justice and equity, but not through collision," said Erdogan.

"Despite the resolutions adopted, [India-occupied] Kahsmir is still besieged and eight million people are stuck in Kashmir," he said.

"The invasions, conflicts and terrorist activities for almost four decades in Afghanistan have led to instability in the region," he said while talking about the region.

The India-occupied region has been facing a clampdown since August 5, when the Indian government nixed Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which conferred a special status on it.

Hundreds of people, mostly political leaders, have been detained or arrested by authorities since the Indian government made the move.

India and Pakistan hold Kashmir in parts and claim it in full.

Following Erdogan's remarks, Prime Minister Imran Khan thanked him for raising the issue of occupied Kashmir at the UNGA and for calling for a solution to the long-standing dispute.

In a subsequent tweet, the premier said: "I appreciate President Erdogan's statement that the stability and prosperity of South Asia cannot be separated from the Kashmir issue."

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Erdogan calls for dialogue to end Kashmir dispute - World ...

According to a recent survey by the pollster Konda, a growing number of Turksidentify as atheists. Konda reports that the number of nonbelievers tripled in the past 10 years. It also found that the share of Turks who say theyadhere to Islam dropped from 55 percent to 51 percent.

"There is religious coercion in Turkey," said 36-year-old computer scientist Ahmet Balyemez, who has been an atheist for over 10 years. "People ask themselves: Is this the true Islam?" he added. "When we look at the politics of our decision-makers, we can see they are trying to emulate the first era of Islam. So, what we are seeing right now is primordial Islam."

Balyemez said he grew up in a very religious family. "Fasting and praying were the most normal things for me," he said. But then, at some point, he decided to become an atheist.

Balyemez said atheism provided an attractive alternative to religious coercion

Diyanet, Turkey's official directorate of religious affairs, declared in 2014 that more than 99 percent of the population identifies as Muslim. When Konda's recent survey with evidence to the contrary was published, heated public debate ensued.

The theologian Cemil Kilic believes that both figures are correct. Though 99 percent of Turks are Muslim, he said, many only practice the faith in a cultural and sociological sense. They are cultural, rather than spiritual, Muslims.

Kilic said Muslims who regularly pray, go on pilgrimages or wear veils could generally be considered pious, though, he added, being true to the faith means much more than just performing rituals or opting for certain outerwear. In his view, "judging whether a person is religious should also be based on whether he or she subscribes to certain ethical and humanitarian values." When only taking into account people who practice Islam, he said, "no more than 60 percent of people in Turkey can be considered Muslim."

"The majority of Muslims in Turkey are like the Umayyads, who ruled in the seventh century," Kilic said. "The prayers contained in the Koran reject injustice. But the Umayyads regarded daily prayer as a form of showing deference towards the sultan, the state and the powers that be."

In Turkey, Kilic said, the relationship between organized religion andthe state endures. "Regular prayers have become a way to signal obedience toward the political leadership," he said. "And prayers in mosques increasingly reflect the political worldview of those in power."

Kilic said a lack of belief did not, of course, mean the lack of a moral compass. "Some atheists are more ethical and conscientious than many Muslims," he said.

For nearly 16 years under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, first as prime minister and since 2014 as president, Turkish officials have increasingly used Islam to justify their politics possibly increasingthe skepticism surrounding faith in government. "People reject the predominant interpretation of Islam, the sects, religious communities, the directorate of religious affairs and those in power," he said. "They do not want this kind of religion and this official form of piousness." This, Kilic said, could help explain why so many Turks now identify as atheists.

Kilic said atheists' morals were often more consistent than those expressed by the pious

'Questioning their faith'

Selin Ozkohen, who heads Ateizm Dernegi, Turkey's main association for atheists, said Erdogan's desire to produce a generation of devout Muslims had backfired in many ways. "Religious sects and communities have discredited themselves," she said. "We have always said that the state should not be ruled by religious communities, as this leads to people questioning their faith and becoming humanist atheists."

Ozkohen citedthe unsuccessful coupin 2016,in which followers of the preacher and religious scholarFethullah Gulen are accused of rising up against Erdogan, a former ally of the theologian's. The coup, she said, was a clash between opposing religious groups which was followed by a major crackdown by Erdogan. "People have noticed this and distanced themselves," she said. "Those who reflect rationally on this turn to atheism."

As a result, Ozkohen said, "today, people are more courageous and willing to openly say they are atheists." But the government continues to coerce people to conform to perceived religious standards. "Pressure is exerted in the neighborhoods and mosques," she said. "And the most visible sign of this is that in 2019, schoolchildren are still obliged to study religion."

Having lived and worked in Turkey since early 2012, DW's Bradley Secker has traveled extensively around Turkey. Driving from Izmir city from the airport, this huge bust of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk on the outskirts of the city is hard to miss.

A waxwork of Ataturk dressed in a military uniform sits at a desk in his former home in Istanbul, which is now a museum.

A sculptor makes the final touches to a cast of Ataturk before varnishing it at a workshop in the northern Istanbul area of Levent. It will be placed in a school playground.

Carpets depicting Ataturk hang alongside other well-known figures, such as Che Guevara, Bashar Assad, Imam Hussein and the Virgin Mary at a market in the southern Turkish city of Antakya, close to the border with Syria. The city is ethnically and religiously mixed, and a proportion of the population supports Assad for ideological, political or religious reasons.

Turkey has one remaining Ataturk lookalike who works professionally in television, film, and at public events. Goksal Kaya, who's from Izmir, travels around Turkey and Europe for various events where he appears as a symbolic, personal version of Ataturk. Everywhere he goes he's surrounded by people asking for selfies, with some even crying when they see him.

During a rally of the main opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), a man in the crowd shows his allegiance to Ataturk.

Along a quiet stretch of the central Istanbul coastline, near the tourist hub of Sultanahmet, Ataturk looks out over the city toward the Bosporus, the strait which separates the western European side of the city from its eastern Asian part.

For almost a month every year in Ataturk village, a short drive from Turkey's eastern border with Georgia, the sun sets at a certain position casting a shadow over a valley. For around an hour, that shadow perfectly resembles Ataturk's profile. The local council has built a viewing area.

For a while, during the Gezi park protests in Istanbul in 2013, an elderly man walked around the city drawing portraits of Ataturk like this one, inside the shape of a heart. Because defacing or destroying an image of Ataturk is frowned upon in Turkey, the drawings mostly remain around the city.

A portrait of Ataturk and Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan hang next to a Turkish flag in Erdogan's former football club in Kasimpasa, Istanbul. The neighborhood in which Erdogan grew up is predominantly working class, and Erdogan's supporters see him as one of their own due to his humble roots.

Author: Bradley Secker (Turkey)

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