found online by Raymond
From Infidel753:
Turkey is one of the Middle East’s two long-standing democracies (the other is Israel), but this week’s failed coup there is a reminder of how differently things can work in different societies.
After World War I led to the collapse of the decrepit Ottoman Empire, the modern Turkish state was established by Kemal Atatürk, perhaps history’s best example of a charismatic leader who changed the course of a whole country’s development. Atatürk, an atheist, was determined to make the new Turkish state as modern and Western as possible in every respect, including both democracy and secularism.