The guest's final statements about the connection between majority-Muslim countries in the Middle East and the lack of democracy there are especially disappointing. Her statements during the first part of her interview were thoughtful, and focused almost exclusively on Turkey as country with agency to address its own fate. But here at the end she devolves into the same old anti-Western and anti-capitalist cant that left-wing diehards have been passing off for the last 50 years.
So the expectations of Western leaders and the demands of capitalism are responsible for the failure of the Turkey to successfully adopt democracy? If so, that must mean that Western leaders and capitalism must be especially influential in Turkey. But it sure doesn't seem that way. Quite the contrary, it seems that Erdogan and his current establishment never miss an opportunity to stick it in the eye of the West, from the tormenting of Sweden in its NATO efforts to the almost-giddy homophobia of the current Turkish state. Really disappointing that she tries to pass off Turkey's democratic deficit as the fault of others. At first I thought I might get her book, but by the time I finished reading the interview I was far less sure.
The guest's final statements about the connection between majority-Muslim countries in the Middle East and the lack of democracy there are especially disappointing. Her statements during the first part of her interview were thoughtful, and focused almost exclusively on Turkey as country with agency to address its own fate. But here at the end she devolves into the same old anti-Western and anti-capitalist cant that left-wing diehards have been passing off for the last 50 years.
So the expectations of Western leaders and the demands of capitalism are responsible for the failure of the Turkey to successfully adopt democracy? If so, that must mean that Western leaders and capitalism must be especially influential in Turkey. But it sure doesn't seem that way. Quite the contrary, it seems that Erdogan and his current establishment never miss an opportunity to stick it in the eye of the West, from the tormenting of Sweden in its NATO efforts to the almost-giddy homophobia of the current Turkish state. Really disappointing that she tries to pass off Turkey's democratic deficit as the fault of others. At first I thought I might get her book, but by the time I finished reading the interview I was far less sure.
Sorry, please delete the fourth "the" in the first sentence of the second paragraph.
Could Iraq and Lebanon be considered democracies, as well?