Professor Kenneth M. Cuno is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who researches, teaches and writes about the history of the modern Middle East. He spoke to our class about the Ottoman Empire and Turkey today. Throughout his lecture he discussed the relationship between Islamic institutions and the state during the Ottoman Period and the 20^th century. Religious endowments, education and the legal equality of law all contributed to a shift in the relationship between mosque and state. Cuno also discussed how the Ottoman Empire was destroyed during the first World War as well as how the Turkish Republic was formed in 1923. Mustafa Kemal, known as Ataturk helped modernize Turkey and move the country toward westernized principles. In the 1920s the Republican People’s Party encouraged a change in ideology and shifted the country from an Islamic identity to a Turkish national identity. After WWII Turkey democratized and started holding multi party elections.