Why is Turkey in Nato? That is an important question. A Muslim country with a sliver of Christians, actually two tenths of a percent (.0002) or 200,000 out of a population of 80 million.

Freedom of the press has been stamped out. A government takeover by an autocratic regime.

Zaman newspaper: Seized Turkish daily ‘now pro-government’

Turkey’s biggest newspaper, Zaman, has published an edition carrying pro-government articles, two days after being taken over by authorities.

On Friday, a court ruled that Zaman, previously linked to an opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, should now be run by administrators.

Its last edition under old ownership on Saturday said Turkey’s press had seen one of its “darkest days”.

But that isn’t all, we have seen this coming. Erdogan has unleashed a tirade on the Kurds who make up a substantial number of citizens living in Turkey – approximately 20,000,000. Turkey is afraid of them breaking away. Kurds in Turkey and Iraq have defended themselves against outside forces, particularly the Iraqi shias and the pro-Assad forces.

Christian shrines are non existent; Hagia Sophia has been turned into a museum.  a former Christian patriarchal basilica (church), later an imperial mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. From the date of its construction in 537 until 1453, it served as an Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople,^[1] except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931. It was then secularized and opened as a museum on 1 February 1935.

In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks under Sultan Mehmed II, who ordered this main church of Orthodox Christianity converted into a mosque. By that point, the church had fallen into a state of disrepair. Nevertheless, the Christian cathedral made a strong impression on the new Ottoman rulers and they decided to convert it into a mosque. The bells, altar, iconostasis, and sacrificial vessels and other relics were removed and the mosaics depicting Jesus, his Mother Mary, Christian saints and angels were also removed or plastered over.Islamic features—such as the mihrab, minbar, and four minarets—were added. It remained a mosque until 1931, when it was closed to the public for four years. It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum by the Republic of Turkey. Hagia Sophia is currently (2014) the second-most visited museum in Turkey, attracting almost 3.3 million visitors annually.

Click here for Israel and the Kurds. Could this be the reason why Erdogan hates Israel.

The Kurds and Kurdish-speaking Yezidis are once again caught in the grip of the Sunni-Shia vice · Against this background and often isolated, their special relationship with Israel stands out for the good: military advice, equipment and training are only some of the ways Israel has helped the Kurdish struggle for independence · “They only have trust in Israel,” says Brigadier General (res.) Tzuri Sagi, the man who led the Kurds to their stunning victories against Iraq in the sixties and seventies