Actually I visited Istanbul, but the really first overwhelming moment concerning the system for me was in Ankara, where it opened my eyes and I could see turkish people and structures differently. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the father of the turks after the ottoman empire. He founded the turkish republic and made amazing reforms in almost every kind we can imagine. Women rights, religion (secularism), education, language, alphabet,... Under the influence of European humanism, and "Aufklärung" - which had never been possible in certain islamic countries, he built up a proud, new and advanced country. An openminded democracy instead of violent Sultanism in between of countries which still lived in this kind of system. After 1. world war lots of things changed and so a lot of politicians felt betrayed and didn´t want to continue the development, introduced by him. Now, prime minister Erdogan seems to have the wish to be a new Sultan and with the usual nepotism he obviou...