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[caption id="" align="alignright" width="150" caption="author: Klaus Jurgens. Source : Sunday&#039;s Zaman"][/caption]" As much as objective commentators are right to applaud Turkey’s rapid modernization process -- think new roads, hospitals, schools, alignment with EU legislation, an emerging civil society, economic strength, regional political influence, its anticipated and soon to be drafted civilian constitution and so many other issues -- we should not refrain from addressing one major obstacle which must be overcome before the entire length and width of the nation can be considered ready for the future: the quite considerable economic gap between Turkey’s east and its west. [...]This is further complicated by what in all modesty can only be described as ignorance on behalf of some segments of the Turkish public who live to the west of an imaginary divide linking Samsun with Ankara and Konya with Antalya. For them the Far East begins just beyond that line. A look at soap operas as broadcasted by nearly all Turkish television stations or advertisements for Turkish goods and services, which in most instances are shot with İstanbul as backdrop, underlines this assumption."Source: Sunday's Zaman&#160;