Erdogan Toprak, deputy chairman of the opposition Republican People's Party, has said the prime minister "would like to bring the sultan back" - a reference to the old days of the Ottoman Empire before Turkey become a republic.

BBC: Is Turkey's secular system in danger?

In an interview this month with the opposition Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review, former Turkish president Suleyman Demirel warned that the AKP has established "an empire of fear" in Turkey.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Turkey's cautionary tale

Ninety years ago, on the night of 24 April, the government of Ottoman Turkey rounded up about 250 leaders of the empire's Armenian community.

BBC: NEWS | Europe | Armenians remember mass killings

Polly Peck was Mr Nadir's multi-billion-pound trading empire which stretched from the UK to Turkey.

BBC: Asil Nadir

In 1920, the Treaty of Sevres was signed between Turkey and the Allied powers after World War One, relieving Turkey of much of the land ruled by the Ottoman Empire.

CNN: Sunday,

Ankara's plans are all the more apparent when seen in the context of Turkish Prime Minister Recip Erdogan's moves to reinstate Turkey as a regional hegemon along the lines of the Ottoman Empire.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Rival Hegemons in Syria

For the past 90 years Turkey has in fact neglected the Arab lands of the former Ottoman empire and focused on the West.

ECONOMIST: Turkey is rethinking its place in the world

After World War I the defeated Ottoman Empire's most successful general, Mustafa Kemal , took over and made the revolutionary decision that Turkey's future lay in tying itself firmly to the West.

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