Professional Soldiers ® - US ally Turkey flirts with Mideast's 'bad boys'

US ally Turkey flirts with Mideast's 'bad boys'

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42225974...d_news-europe/

ISTANBUL, Turkey — The fragrance of oranges mingles with the smell of tear gas in Sinem Yoruk's memories of the night a mob rampaged through her neighborhood.

"A gang of 50 men armed with iron bars, knives and pepper spray — and, bizarrely, frozen fruit — damaged seven art galleries and attacked guests as they chatted, drank and smoked in the street.

"There was broken glass everywhere — and lots of oranges," Yoruk recalled.

The incident dominated Turkey's newspapers for days. Many took it as the latest sign of growing intolerance toward Western values in the Muslim-majority country, which is both a meeting point of Europe and Asia and Islam and Christianity.

Yoruk, a 34-year-old gallery owner, is among those who saw something bigger at work in the Sept. 21 rampage, which sent five people to the hospital.

"There has been a huge increase in this sort of bullying attitude," she told msnbc.com. ..................."

The slow march continues.