Veiled Hostility

I may be part of the mildly apathetic global Gen X brigade, but like many an urban Turk, I was raised on a solid diet of modernist mantras. The secular zeal of Turkey's nation-builders runs in my blood. As an air force pilot, my grandfather fought alongside Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, modern Turkey's founder, in the country's war for independence. After it was won in 1923, his job was to help build Turkey's first fleet of biplanes. My grandmother was what's called an "Ataturk girl" — like many others, she was put on a train to Germany, on her own at age...