Post-Ottoman Turkey established itself as the most progressive of all Muslim countries with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk launching social and political reforms in the 1920s to modernise the country - the emancipation of women, the abolition of all Islamic institutions and the introduction of Western legal codes, dress and calendar and replacing the Arabic script with a Latin one.

Such progress has come to a screeching halt under the current autocratic regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a nasty pieceof work if ever there was one who is hell bent on a regressive program that is intolerant of dissent, severly restricts freedoms, jails opponents and is taking Turkey backwards to a more Islamic-centric rule.

Turkey is evenly divided between westernised progressives, particularly in Ankara and Izmir and ultra-conservatives in the country regions. Our experience, prior to the 2016 attempted coup and consequent crackdown, was of a friendly population and non-threatening environment. There is some hope that Erdogan and his cronies won't be able to completely wreck the joint.