Turkey the key to the Middle East

Following the attempted putsch by sections of the army, now comes the crackdown on that section of civil society which is the opposition to President Erdogan.
The society within Turkey is complex and very excitable. The scenes of one on one violence with punches thrown at the surrendering soldiers, the arrest of hundreds of judges and the call by Erdogan to restore the death penalty is a brutal scene and one we in Europe are not now used to since the end of the Second World War and the brutality of the Fascists in Germany.
Kemal Atatuk
The history of the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of a "secular state" (in contrast to a Muslim autocracy) in Turkey under the leadership of Kemel Ataturk was an experiment which brought high praise from the west but has been systematically dismantled under Erdogon as he seeks to re-establish a Muslim state.
One of the striking images of a Muslim society which has control of virtually all aspects of governance is the strict alliance to authoritarian stricture of what is allowed and what isn't. Based on religious observance rather than secular observance, the give and take within society and between its people is greatly circumscribed by the adherence to religious observance, an observance which is not of this time but of a time when society was so vastly different.
Of course the religious edict is in some ways timeless and the direction of travel whereby the instructions to man to follow a set of rules designed to enhance our ability to live together has not changed with time. One of the problems of modern society is that it's freedom is misinterpreted by many as a free for all where anything goes and the rules governing behaviour and our moral surety is conveniently forgotten for the instant gratification of the moment. Consequences are ignored and with so many options, the ground is clear to be as gross as you wish.
Within the Patriarchy of a Muslim state the consequences are taken care of by the societies acceptance of a strict  code of public conduct which is overseen by the implicit use of violence on those unable to conform. Honour killings, death and mutilation for women who break the religious code on marriage, and a willingness to remove any form of dissent within society at large means that the word consequences has more than a hollow ring.
Erdogan is simply playing to form as he seeks to mould Turkey once more into an Ottoman style, modern Sultanate !! If we can live with that and turn our eyes away when oppression becomes savage then so be it. We have done it many times in the past and no doubt will in the future.