Westernization

"The United States and China are sliding toward inevitable conflict if Washington does not change its approach toward Beijing. Moreover, the US has no right to criticize the possibility that the Asian giant is helping Russia in its war in Ukraine, while itself is providing weapons to Taiwan."

‘The Limits of Westernization: A Cultural History of America in Turkey’ by Perin E. Gürel (Columbia University Press, 273 pages, $49)

​The rift between Turkey and the European Union is not a temporary matter; on the contrary, it is time to think rationally and take it seriously. The idea of Turkey's EU membership has always been a bit hypocritical for both sides. It was not that EU membership was a dream project limited to the aspirations of Westernized elites.

Turkey's pretense of being a Western(ized), secular country has long been challenged as being "superimposed." I, for one, have always been a critic of the "radical Westernization project" of the Republican regime, since it could only be enforced by authoritarian politics. It led to the suppression of not only religious freedoms and the closure of Islamist parties, but also of basic freedoms, li