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Turkey at the shores of purgatory

With hearts pounding for the (Sunni) Muslim paradise but minds not too silly to risk a (Shiite) Muslim hell, officialdom in Ankara is going through the country's century-old conundrum: Unfortunately, Muslim Turkey is privately viewed as an "infidel land" both by Wahhabi (or other fellow) Sunni Arabs and by the Shiite (not-so-fellow) Persians. It is simple to understand.

Gavrilo Princip's modern-day reincarnation

As one good friend from distant lands has reminded recently, Turkey these days looks like the man who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Once again, it's the never-ending struggle, the (Islamic) "dawa" - the fight for the advancement of Sunni Islamism. "Dawa" commands fighting the infidel at home and abroad, including in (non-Sunni) Muslim lands. 

Turkey’s ‘doorman complex’

The photo featured happy faces – Turkish and European. Last week, three EU bigwigs were in Ankara: Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign affairs chief; Johannes Hahn, a chief enlargement official; and Christos Stylianides, commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management.

The Eden of the Middle East

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan became angry because the main opposition leader had called the Middle East a quagmire. “That’s insulting,” the prime minister said. Before a court bans using the words “Middle East” and “quagmire” in the same sentence, this columnist volunteers to call the peaceful, wealthy, healthy and happy region as “the Eden of the Middle East.”