Turkey, the Euphoria of Change
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Turkey has undergone serious crises in the course of this year. They seemed to indicate that the country was still far from being EU-compatible. Yet, these crisesshould probably rather be seen as reactions to the fragile metamorphosis of the country under Prime Minister Erdogan’s leadership. AK Party successfully opposed, during the electoral campaign, its pragmatic agenda to the identity- andsecularism-indexed approach of the Kemalist establishment. Yet, many questionmarks remain, the least important not being the one about the scope of AKP’s change itself and about its ability to become a traditional center-right party.Thomas Bénalo stayed a long time in Istanbul, where he has been lecturer in various universities. He is now a free-lance journalist and still goes frequently to Turkey.