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[Intellectuals see the trials as a chance to make the accused accountable for the crimes of the past.] Given Turkey’s history of military coups, this is understandable; we saw things pretty much the same way until recently. What was much more difficult to fathom was these intellectuals’ unwillingness to question their beliefs in light of mounting evidence that the defendants had been framed. Many of Turkey’s leading “liberals” simply turned their backs on the evidence that we had amassed.

Their Zaman, et al. our state controlled American media (SCAM); their Fethullah Gülen, our George Soros; their media unbiased reporting now fearful, our Fox News reporting now reticent; their intellectual class willing to "go along" ours done gone along; their fake documents, our president's fake birth certificate; their intellectuals want to see punishment for the nation's crimes of the past, our "intellectuals" want to see our nation's crimes of the past, present and future punished.

Lot similarity there. Oh.. one difference, a huge percentage -- last I heard 40 percent -- of Turkish adults oppose Islamism and Sharia law and hundreds of thousands of them get out and demonstrate against Islamism and Sharia law. That's the one difference. Our Muslims are silent or favor Islamism and Sharia law.. except for a handful of Muslims living here.

BTW, a nation scarred by a history of military coups? Scarred? What's the problem? They prefer an Islamic republic to replace Turkey's constitutional republic?

San Francisco KSFO Barbara Simpson interviewed Ms Claire Berlinski about her book There is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters.

Turns out Ms Berlinski is a long-time resident of Instanbul and writes about things Turkish here

In her comment about some Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) supporters firebombing a student dormitory in a province and one student suffered severe burns to the entire body she wrote

"I can find no coverage of this attack in any English-language news source but Today's Zaman--which I do not trust. But something obviously happened here that should be covered by the international media. Why isn't anyone noticing?"

Good question and she does not trust Today's Zaman. Sounds like we can trust her.