Re: "Is Turkey Leaving the West?" Turkey has never been part of the west in the first place, Daniel - review your history and that fact will become evident. For a brief historical interval, from the fall of the Ottoman Empire to perhaps ten years ago, Turkey could have been considered a secular state with some western qualities - but that is not the same as being a part of the west. Turkey does not now and has never belonged to western civilization in the way that Greece does, or England or any number of other nations and peoples.