As many know, my fascination with Bozdag’s Ertugrul/Osman series is peak culture war—and one that Turkey appears to be winning. If the United States had anything close to this, we might be in a different place than we are today.
The United States has few movies of culture defending our heritage. We have a few brief glimpses—Amistad, Turn, The Patriot, perhaps many early westerns—there may be other examples I am missing, but they escape me. Maybe you add your own in the comments? Point is, there has never been a consistent cultural defense of the Founding of this country.
What Turkey is engaged in is a retVrn. You might disagree that it should return, but it is a noble effort to do so. The Erdogan projects have become wildly popular. Whether it actually works after a decades of GAE imposition, is another question. But one has to understand, if not admire, the effort.
As I have written in other places, Erdogan is trying to do 2 things: raise the Ottoman to its former glory, and moderate Islam by making Turkey, not Mecca, the preeminent place for the Faith.
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