Whether it was appeasing the Soviet premiers of yesteryear or coddling today's Arab autocrats, the tendency to see the merits of such iron-fisted rule has colored Western strategic thinking.
Religious conservatives have become increasingly assertive since the ruling Justice and Development Party led by Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan swept to power in 2003 pledging to build an Islam-infused democracy and seeking to rehabilitate an Ottoman past long-discredited for decades during an iron-fisted secular rule.