"Silent Capitulations: The Kemalist Republic Under Assault" brings to life the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Turkish political life. It paints an uncompromising picture of a regime determined to appease European skeptics of Turkish adhesion to the European Union by capitulating to their demands on all fronts. Turkey's inability to unite its eastern and western parts is attributed to the dominance of an oligarchy of feudal lords, tribal chiefs, big business, and a ruling class who all masquerade as if they are part of a functioning democracy. Suffering from the ravages of tribal conformity and tainted by corruption and cronyism, the society is showing signs of an astonishing degree of deterioration. When municipal governments are a relic of the past and taxation is a tangle of dysfunctional measures, when justice is crippled by archaic arrangements and a web of vested interests control corporations-the nation is indeed under attack.
Using arguments developed through the use of events and anecdotes, author Sedat Sami offers a deep examination of the Turkish social and political scene as well as a dramatic account of the Islamist onslaught against the Kemalist Republic.