Ahval journalist John Lubbock talks to Ryan Gingeras, author of the book 'Heroin, organized crime and the making of modern Turkey' about the recent release of mafia boss Alaattin Çakıcı.

Political repression and curtailed freedoms have earned Turkey a troubling reputation abroad in recent years. For generations of western artists and intellectuals in the 20th century, though, the country was a haven, and many congregated in Istanbul to lead a lifestyle of freedom, far from the Cold War repression of their own countries.