Turkey?s inability to unite its eastern and western parts is attributed to the dominance of an oligarchy of feudal lords, tribal chiefs, big business, and a ruling class who all masquerade as if they are part of a functioning democracy. Suffering from the ravages of tribal conformity and tainted by corruption and cronyism, the society is showing signs of an astonishing degree of deterioration. When municipal governments are a relic of the past and taxation is a tangle of dysfunctional measures, when justice is crippled by archaic arrangements and a web of vested interests control corporations?the nation is indeed under attack.
Using arguments developed through the use of events and anecdotes, author Sedat Sami offers a deep examination of the Turkish social and political scene as well as a dramatic account of the Islamist onslaught against the Kemalist Republic.
