Just remember most westerners talk nothing but bullshit when it comes to Turkey. If you form your understanding on Turkey, its dynamics and its history based on western accounts you will be gravely misinformed of the reality.
Peter zion once said that women in Turkey have to wear the Hijab.
And for all the polarization we don't have problems of men claiming they are women or vice versa yet. We are not yet fighting over american shit like pronouns. Also when it comes to bigger picture, like when the Russians bombed our troops pretty much the entire nation was onboard with war. Only AK party wasn't.
Actually that's one thing westerners always fail to see, they think because the people either hate or like a politician that it effects the wider picture. A good example even those who hate erdogan, support pretty much all the military incursions. When it came to Azerbaijan, 95% of the country supported what Azerbaijan did. We are not actually all that polarised when it comes to bigger picture.
But in terms of this government, they have been a near total failure. Without riding/using religion to manipulate and cling to power, they would have been gone a long long time ago. And in history their has been charlatans using religion for their own personal benefit.
Actually one the best ways for an English speaker to understand Turkey and Turks is probably this very forum.
Unfortunately, this comment of yours is very strange to me. What do you mean that Western sources (think tanks , research institutes, published papers ,books from experts ..etc ) do not mean anything ? Do you know that you can learn information about your country from these sources much more reliably than from anywhere else? Did you know that they host dedicated Turkish researchers from all fields? Most Western universities have specialized studies departments for each country, including Turkey, of course, and don't you know that those research institutions is spent on with budgets of foreign ministries ?
Did you know that it is very common for guests to be a former American ambassador or the position responsible for the Turkish affairs in the US State Department, or even a former director of the CIA or a former US national security advisor who gives 4-hour lecture on one topic about the Turkish issue?
Is this anything but indisputable?
they are completely permeated throughout the political and sometimes governmental classes in most of the “Allied” countries, even the powerful ones, as well as of course those who are new to power like Turkey. Wouldn't it interest you if you looked at the old WikiLeaks documents about Turkey if you went back in time to 2006, as I remember, until 2009? when he says, “Our informant in such and such a party or in such and such a circle told us, and this person described him as such and such.”
And now it is not even difficult at all to deal with Turkish affairs in Turkish or any other language, with the presence of AI with any simple tool that automatically translates all the content on any Internet page into any language without interference.
In general, my observations increased in confidence and confirmation after I added to my sources forums in which I find Turks. Normal people talk , whether here on this blog or on social media like Twitter, especially Reddit. Although I find a lot of nonsense here on the topic of politics, which is completely separate from the rest of the topics, I find more on Twitter, and do not let me talk about the Turkish Reddit, which contains a million people. In general, thank you for your interaction. This confirms my convictions even more.