Istanbul, Turkey
Wherever you go in Istanbul, Atatürk is rarely far away. Portraits of the man who founded the Turkish Republic hang in the Grand Bazaar and in apartment building foyers. His face is etched on everything from street signs to café mugs.
With his vision of Turkey as a liberal, secular state, Atatürk set his nation on the path to western alignment and, ultimately, Nato. When he died in 1938, Winston Churchill said his ‘death is not only a loss for the country, but for Europe is the greatest loss’.
Yet in recent years, Turkey’s position as a western ally has all but disintegrated. Nato was forced to apologise in 2017 when the alliance used ‘Atatürk’ and ‘Erdoğan’, the name of the current president, as enemy targets in a battlefield simulation exercise. A senior adviser in Ankara concluded that ‘the time has come for us to reconsider our membership’.
In recent years, Turkey’s position as a western ally has all but disintegrated
Turkey has long been torn between its place among western powers and its strong ties with Russia.
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