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Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-lerner110402.asp
The Secret of Turkish Democracy
(National Review) Barbara Lerner - Why is Turkey the only Muslim democracy in the Mideast? How has Turkey's republic managed to survive for 79 years? What makes the Turks so different from their Arab and Persian neighbors? The Turkish military is the great secret of Turkish democracy. It keeps Turkey democratic by acting as a necessary limit on the potential excesses of popular majorities and the sometimes demagogic elected leaders who represent them, a role not unlike the one the Supreme Court plays in our own republic.