Western pundits increasingly cite Turkish model for Egypt

As Egypt undergoes a painful transition from a nominally civilian but de facto military regime to democracy, the idea of a Turkish model for Egypt is increasingly being advocated by commentators from the West. Quoting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as saying that Washington wants to work with Egyptian opposition groups to organize political parties for an orderly transition, a Sunday New York Times article said, "This international effort would include Britain, Germany and Turkey, where an Islamist party has successfully taken power — a possible template for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which said Sunday it would enter into talks with the government." An editorial in Britain's Financial Times also said, "One model [for Middle Eastern transformation] in this respect is Turkey, a thriving democracy which, as the process of political and economic modernisation has gained pace, has emerged with a government of a mildly Islamic hue that remains a valuable regional partner. One can debate whether the insistence of certain European Union governments on denying Turkey full EU membership is folly or hard-headed realism. But it is by no means impossible that Arab countries with an entrepreneurial middle class, such as Egypt and Tunisia, will – with European help – evolve in the direction of Turkish-style political pluralism and economic progress."