A Message From Turkey, a Nation Under Pressure
Before I left to begin reporting for The New York Times in Turkey — a nation strained by war, terrorist insurgencies, a refugee crisis
and a widening crackdown on dissent — Turkish diplomats in Washington sent me on my way with a velvet box.
They live in a place where everyday choices and even central points of identity — secular or pious, Turk or Kurd, citizen or refugee
— can at times identify individuals as either loyal to President Erdogan’s agenda, or as part of the mistrusted opposition.
Since then, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has lashed out, purging tens of thousands of perceived opponents
and coup plotters, firing or suspending about 130,000 government employees, and arresting more than 45,000 soldiers, police officers, teachers, politicians and journalists.
The country is battling two separate terrorism campaigns (one led by secular Kurds, the other by Islamic State extremists)
and two land wars (in southeast Turkey and northern Syria).
In a country where citizens disagree on even the most basic interpretation of Mr. Erdogan’s actions
— is he desperately defending a country under siege or cynically maneuvering to seize more power?
Inside, I found a small gray stone with a card that described it as "a symbol of Turkey’s devotion to democracy."
That stone was a chunk of the Turkish Parliament building — blasted free by a bomb dropped by coup plotters in the army last summer.
Please join me as I seek out the people and stories
that can lend insight into how this country is navigating a perilous moment in its history, and as I try to piece together a puzzle that keeps changing before our eyes.
