Steven A. Cook, an expert on Turkey, says the sweeping victory of the Justice and Development Party in parliamentary elections has proven “beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can have democracy in a Muslim-majority country.”

Turkey’s parliamentary poll focused attention on rifts between secularists and moderate Islamists, not to mention the buildup of Turkish troops along Iraq’s border.

A week away from crucial parliamentary elections in Turkey, relations between the United States and Turkey are severely strained. CFR Fellow Steven A. Cook says a recent major poll shows that “in Turkey, a NATO country firmly allied with the United States over the last fifty years, only 9 percent of Turks have a favorable view of the United States.”

In a departure from its traditional foreign policy, Turkey is now becoming an important player in the Middle East. Turkey's growing concern over Kurdish nationalism has brought Ankara closer to the governments of Iran and Syria, which also contend with restive Kurds at home. Although troubling, this shift could be an opportunity for Washington and its allies to use Turkey as a bridge to the Middle East.

Ruling But Not Governing provides valuable insight into the political dynamics that perpetuate authoritarian regimes and offers novel ways to promote democratic change. In this new CFR book, author and Council Douglas Dillon Fellow Steven A. Cook highlights the critical role that the military plays in the stability of the Egyptian, Algerian, and, until recently, Turkish political systems.

Steven Cook discusses his new book, Ruling But Not Governing: The Military and Political Development in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey and how it applies to current developments in the region.

This commentary by Soner Cagaptay,  a senior fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute describes the current turmoil in Turkeyas the most significant political crisis in Turkeysince 1979-80 when the then parliament failed to elect a president and, amid tension on the streets, the military intervened. The paper discusses how the ongoing tensions will evolve.

The prospect of an Islamist president has launched heated national debate between Turkey’s traditionalist secular leaders and its moderate Islamists.

Morton I. Abramowitz, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey during the first Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991, says many Turkish “Secularists” fear that the government headed by the “Islamist” party of Prime Minister Erdogan may turn back the clock and introduce religion into public life.

Demands by Iraqi Kurds for greater autonomy have roiled their Turkish neighbors.

Steven A. Cook, a CFR expert on Turkey, says “the great underreported story” of the Iraq war is the serious deterioration in U.S.-Turkish relations. “It has already blown up,” says Cook.