Turkey or Iran: If you put it that way...

Article

A reader of this blog might feel that by the looks of the Blog, I am a some sort of Conservative, or at least read only conservative materials. I am neither (like to think I'm a moderate), but simple truth is that the conservative outlets and materials outnumber the liberal outlets and they have thing to say.

The article linked to at the top of the blog is from the Wolgan Chosun, the monthly outlet of the Conservative Newspaper. The article argues that there are two political paths which the Middle East can take, the Turkish Model of secular development and the Iranian Model of working within the Islam to create the democracy. The author strongly favors the Turkish model, arguing that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of Modern Turkish state was a visionary that enabled Turkey to recover from the fall of the Ottoman Empire and become the wealthy developed nation it is today. His only shortcoming was that he was too impatient in explaining and implementing his vision. Such is depth of author's favor toward the Ataturk's vision he explains away even the repeated Military Coup as unfortunate but necessarily needed intervention to ensure the idea of secular development.

What about the Iranian model then? Difficult to say, since the author devotes scant two paragraph in the article just for Iran and one of them was the difficulty for Koreans to visit Iran. The other paragraph is used in describing the unease many Arabian nations such as Saudi Arabia (Iran's Rivial) feel toward their "Follow Nation" (considering Iran's Persian origin this is something of a overestimation of fellowship). The reminders are devoted to contrasting the vibrant social and economic life of Istanbul where Women are free to dress what they desire and the drab, economically depressed Tehran where the returning Iranian women are in hurry to put their hajab back on before living the plane needs little additional explanation.

Despite ending his article with a platitude that both nations have valid model toward democracy. It is clear that he is disposed toward the Turkish model and are not particular fond of the current ruling AK party in Turkey, which he accuses of tinkering with the supporting pillars of the regime. No interview with leading Iranians were had, no interview with the average citizens in either nations were mentioned in the article. But, hey the author knows what he's talking about! Hurrah for Turkey, and to hell with nuanced understanding!