Turkey's Kemalists see secularist legacy under threat

Reuters ^ | 11/17/2013 | Humeyra Pamuk and Gulsen Solaker

[markomalley]

For decades his picture dominated Turkey, piercing blue eyes staring from hoardings, keeping watch over city streets and army barracks. Schoolyards echoed every morning to his oath:

"Happy is he who can say 'I am a Turk!'"

Now that oath rings out no more and the image of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the secular republic, seems for some to be retreating into the shadows, victim of a new ruling class they suspect of cherishing a new more 'Islamic' Turkey.

Turkey's "Kemalists" flinch at Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan advising women on the number of children they should have, fostering restrictions on alcohol and expressing moral outrage over male and female students living together in the same house or flat.

The natural place to turn, as in hard times before, was to Ataturk's tomb, the Anitkabir, a columned stone monument atop a hill in Ankara. Over a million people descended on it this month on the anniversary of his death, the highest number in more than a decade. Tens of thousands more marked the ritual at Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace where Ataturk spent his last days.

[Corporate Democrat]

Turkey is in a complicated place right now. Most Turks, in poll after poll, overwhelmingly disapprove of the Islamist Erdogan arming al-Qaeda and pushing ‘stealth Sharia’ on the people. But they won’t be able to defeat him until they can find a good alternative to the commies.

Because like Clinton, Erdogan’s popularity is rooted in his association with economic prosperity. The alternative commie coalition brings back the memory of economic malaise for most Turks. So ironically enough, Erdogan’s party packages free market principles with a gradual Islamization of Turkish society. It’s hard for people to throw out someone who has tripled the salary of the average Turk.

[Corporate Democrat]

Why Turks continue to vote for the Islamist Erdogan: <

[Bringbackthedraft]

“Happy is he who can say ‘I am a Turk!’” ........................................ I remember when the Turk word was “an American”. What happened America?