Erdogan dreams of giant mosques, the comeback of the ottoman empire and himself as the Caliph ....

and given the mad state of the world we live in now, his dream could still become a reality.... in  spite of the secularists demanding his resignation.

The first vid below is supposed to have happened in the city of Izmir.  Three young people, one of them  a woman,  get ganged up on by a large group of police brutes inside  what looks like an underground garage where the three were hiding,.





Tim Arango writing at NYTimes:
...Three weeks before street protests spread across Turkey, the architect Ahmet Vefik Alp traveled to Sunnylands, the famous Southern California retreat for heads of state, where he presented his blueprint for a project in Istanbul’s Taksim Square that has been the dream of Turkey’s Islamist movement for decades: a large mosque that would honor the country’s Muslim and Ottoman heritage.

Before a gathering of the American Institute of Architects, Mr. Alp presented a slide show whose images depicted a modernist vision and included seven underground floors for a library, museum, conference hall, restaurant and banquet room. The design has won two important architectural prizes, even though Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pushed for an Ottoman-inspired design.

Now, his plans in tatters, Mr. Alp can only watch and wait. “I hope,” he wrote in an e-mail, “that this award-winning mosque project will not be a victim of political and ideological disputes.”

The government’s plan to destroy Gezi Park, a section of Taksim Square, and build a replica Ottoman Army barracks and mall set off weeks of violent street protests, presenting Mr. Erdogan with the greatest political crisis he has faced in more than a decade in power. But the plan to build a large mosque in the square is, in the eyes of many analysts here, the real nub of the dispute.

The building of such a mosque is a decades-old hope of Turkey’s Islamists, and even played a role in the last military intervention in Turkish politics in 1997, when army generals maneuvered to overthrow an Islamist prime minister.

The building of such a mosque is a decades-old hope of Turkey’s Islamists, and even played a role in the last military intervention in Turkish politics in 1997, when army generals maneuvered to overthrow an Islamist prime minister.........



Alparaslan Akkus translating from Sabah at Al-Monitor:
According to a survey of Arab elites,  Turkey is the leading country in the region. There are important lessons for Turkish foreign policy to be learned from this survey.
An academic team from Istanbul’s Fatih University carried out a in-depth survey of perceptions of Turkey in the region. They worked for four months in Iraq, Syria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine. Associate Professor Savas Genc, who led the work, said that the survey was based on interviews with 400 people and did not intend to study the Arab street, but rather elites who are influential in decision-making mechanisms. The survey concluded that there is a consensus in all the countries on two issues: Turkey is having more say in international politics, and Turkish democracy is a source of inspiration for Middle Eastern countries. Another conclusion that can be reached is that Turkey is seen as an undisputed leader, with 33% [choosing Turkey]. Meanwhile, Iran is the second most influential country, with 25%.

There are also lessons to be learned from the survey for Turkish foreign policy. Most important is that 53% of those surveyed feel Turkey is following a pro-Sunni sectarian foreign policy. Second, there is a significant perception that Turkey is acting as the patron of the Ottoman lands. Third, [Arab elites] generally think Turkey supports democratization in Arab countries because of its common interests with Western countries. Except for Palestine, all Arab countries oppose a Kurdish state in the region, while 98% of [those surveyed in] Israel want it. This is more than the Kurds themselves [81.5%]. Only Israel and Palestine criticize Turkey’s Syria policy and call on Turkey to stay neutral instead of supporting he Syrian opposition. If we note here that Israel prefers a Syria divided along ethnic and sectarian lines after Assad, it's easier to understand why it wants Turkey to stay neutral....