Turkey coup plot: What's behind the tumultuous identity crisis

The question of what role religion should play in public and political life has divided modern Turkey since its founding in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a military officer and secularist. For most of its modern history, Turkey has been governed by a secular, Western-­oriented elite, but the rise of the AKP has put the military face to face with an emerging political class that is more connected to its Islamic faith and sees Turkey’s place as both in the East and in the West.

Does Turkey still plan to enter the EU?

Turkey’s connections to Europe – economic, political, and cultural – were already well established during the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922). Turkey was officially recognized as a candidate for EU membership in 1999 and started negotiations with Brussels in 2005. After an initial burst of reforms, though, Ankara appears to have lost its zeal for the EU. Some of this is due to frustration with European foot-dragging, but another reason is Ankara’s growing sense of its own potential as an economic and political power in its region.

This change has been particularly noticeable in the Middle East. After decades of keeping its Muslim and Arab neighbors at arm’s length, Ankara has reengaged with them in recent years. Relations with Syria and Iran, for example, have improved dramatically. Ties with Israel, however, once an important strategic ally, have taken a serious tumble.

This new foreign policy has led to accusations that Turkey is changing its traditional pro-Western stance.

But Sami Kohen, a veteran foreign-affairs columnist for the daily Milliyet newspaper, sees it differently: “During the cold war, Turkey’s foreign policy was indexed to the West, to Washington,” he says. “Here we have a turning point, a change. Is Turkey changing axis? It’s not a useful question.... I believe the thinking now in government circles is that Turkey itself can now be an axis.”

How does this latest domestic turmoil affect Turkey’s regional ambitions?

Turkey’s ability to succeed on the world stage is tied to its being able to resolve its troubles at home first, observers say.

“We have a lot of unsettled accounts domestically,” says Semih Idiz, an Ankara-based analyst who also writes for Milliyet. “A lot of things have been whitewashed over the years, and now everything has come home to roost in a big way. All this talk of where Turkey is going is meaningless until Turkey itself figures out what its own identity is.”

Many in Turkey say the nation needs to abandon its 1980 Constitution, dictated by the military, and write a new document that reflects liberal democratic values.

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