At the time when I was a student in Turkey, from 1992 to 1996, the Prime Minister was a woman, Tancu Çiller. I remember walking in front of churches that had fences as high as the Berlin Wall and Mosques that had no fences. What caught my attention about the mosques were the children, 6 to 12 years old in the inner rooms. They were studying the Koran in Arabic language. These were the fields where the seeds of radical Islamism were being planted. The New Democrats, Adnan Menderas, changed prayers from Turkish to Arabic; then, Kenan Evren allowed religion into the basic education curriculum in the eighties. But only Islam, not other religions. It is these New Democrats who are now modifying the history of Turkey and stating that a real Turk is a Muslim Turk. Who is to blame for this historical inconsistency? The Prime Minister or the New Democrats who paved the way? Ataturk must be turning in his grave, seeing the country he transformed into a vibrant modern nation being pulled back into the dark ages of religious intolerance.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 23:59:46 +0000
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