[buwaya]

“And what the heck is Turkey doing in NATO?”

Leftover from the Cold War. They too were threatened by the Soviets. Turkey is strategic real estate.

Also, to a degree, this and other benefits post-1945 were a reward for good behavior in WWII. Turkey was a “friendly” neutral and never played footsie with the Nazis even when they were next door, in force. Consider the delicate days of April-May 1941.

Add that they sent a brigade to Korea, 1950, which fought hard and suffered heavy casualties. And then there was decades of Cold War cooperation, and etc. The whole thing only went bad with Erdogan.

[Flavious_Maximus]

I always considered Turgut Özal the best, most trustworthy Turkish president ever.

Too bad he died in 1993 when he was starting to get world popularity.

[Joe Boucher]

“The whole thing only went bad with Erdogan.”
Turkey was on the way up before he came to power. NO they are hated.

[rlmorel]

That is how I view it. Turkish muslims had been more secularized, because one of their own (Ataturk) had a big head start. Iran had a possibility to go down that same road, and that ended when Carter abandoned the Shah.

[Hiddigeigei]

Add that they sent a brigade to Korea, 1950, which fought hard and suffered heavy casualties.
I have a friend that was there. He said the Turks built a bonfire and sat around it singing and playing their guitars. The Chinese on the mountain top dropped a mortar shell into the bonfire. The Turks put down their guitars, pulled out their long knives, charged up the hill and ran the Chinese off. Then they relit the fire and started singing around it again.