Originally Posted by
Rockie_Rapier
Yes, that makes very interesting reading. Were you also a little surprised to see a Muslimic nation not just buying technology from the west but producing it?
Turkey is still secular despite the efforts of some - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk set them on that path with such force that it has lasted with the majority.
Their economy is NOT resource based and they still manufacture a lot of things from the "German" washing machine in your house through cars and helicopters to rockets capable of launching small satellites. There is a big building industry with lots of engineers, fairly good education and they spend more on defence as a % of GDP (2.8%) than the UK (and it was historically much higher) - plus they have a larger population.
I'm sorry for the digression but it's worth understanding the difference. There's a an ongoing "contest" for power between the secular west of Turkey and the religious country hicks from the east who have recently learned to read but are upset that they cannot marry their cousins anymore.