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The president has canceled several celebratory events due to the situation in Gaza, generating criticism from secular sectors

On the centennial of the Turkish Republic, its citizens are debating the country's evolution and how it measures up to the vision of modern Turkey's deeply secular founder.

On Oct. 29 Turkey will mark its 100th year as a republic, with an overtly Islamist leader in power for the past 20 years. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking to unravel the legacy of the secularizing founder of modern Turkey Kemal Ataturk. He may have succeeded in several ways, but Turkish scholar Selim Koru argues that under Erdogan Islam has become more of a transactional rather than a spiritual force. 

For the better part of a decade, Turkey and the U.S. have been locked in what might be considered an unhappy marriage, marked by bitter misunderstandings and growing distrust. Some optimists had hoped that something of a reset might be possible, but recent events, both in Turkey’s ongoing conflict with the PKK and because of the ripple effects from Israel’s war with Hamas, likely mean that U.S.-Turkish relations, far from improving, will get colder yet in the months to come.

With the initiation of Azerbaijan’s self-declared “anti-terrorist” campaign against Nagorno-Karabakh on Sept. 19, discussion of war yet again echoed