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Comment by petre | Hacker News Reader

I wouldn't underestimate or dismiss them. This is what happened with China, they were making ball point pens in the 80s and then after 40 years they sent a rover to Mars and threaten their neighbours in the South China Sea.

Turkey is involved in wars all over North Africa and the Caucaz region. They're paying for mercenaries fighting in Libya and are suplying one side with drones. They supplied Azerbaidjan with drones and mercenaries.

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Turkey is a Muslim country. The strict separation of religion and state was introduced by Ataturk and is reversed by Erdogan.

While being a Muslim country is not necessary something bad, it seems to go not well along with an industrialized open society:

http://www.martin-van-creveld.com/monsters-ii/

I just came back from a short visit to Turkey and some strange, random impressions gave me big doubts.

Don't equate Turks to Arabs. These guys do have a Turkish Hyundai, Ottocar and their country is quite well industrialized. Also, China is industrialized but not open, which is no reason to dismiss it, as it's currently exerting its influence in SE Asia and also worldwide to some degree. One of Erdogan's ambitions seems to be a new Ottoman Empire, something which does not fare well with Greece, the Balkans, most of Noth Africa and some countries in the Caucaz Region. That's also one of the reason Turkish attempts to join the EU will be met with opposition by Greece, Balkan EU states, along with Romania, Hungary. Here's a map for reference:

https://cdn.britannica.com/89/4789-050-B6176F52/Expansion-Ot...

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