Another favoured Western media trope — repeated to the point where it is simply accepted now as fact — is the assertion that the AKP represents an emerging Anatolian middle class and has presided over an economic miracle. There is certainly a wealthy new group of businessmen close to the AKP, but I'm still looking for the middle class and the miracle. Among OECD members, only Mexico has a less equal distribution of income than Turkey. This is a statistic anyone can find; you but have to look. How do you get a growing middle class out of that? Why does no one ask? 

The Turkish people are generally well-meaning. They suspect that they cannot trust what they hear in the media. "You saw what was on TV, in the news, and what was published," said one young woman whom we interviewed about the Gaza flotilla. "We know nothing less and nothing more." 

"It's murky," agreed her mother. 

They have no way of knowing more. So they may be forgiven. What's the Western media's excuse?