Free Republic

For centuries, the great city of Smyrna was a European foothold on the Anatolian coast. The British Levantine Company had had a factory there since 1667, trading in raisins and carpets, and even then the place was renowned for its lively social life. Francesco Lupazzoli, the priapic Venetian consul, lived on a diet of fruit, bread and water and a few slices of unseasoned meat, yet survived until the age of 114, and fathered 126 children on his five wives and innumerable Smyrniot mistresses. By the end of the 19th century, Smyrna had grown into one of the largest, richest...

The Queen has called the founder of modern-day Turkey "one of the greatest figures of modern history" during a visit to his mausoleum in Ankara. She laid a wreath at the tomb of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as she and Prince Philip began a four-day state visit to the secular Muslim country. In a visitor's book she wrote it was an "honour" to pay her respects to "a much valued friend of the United Kingdom". It is the royal couple's first visit to Turkey since 1971. Religious symbols They are also due to attend a state banquet hosted by President Abdullah...

There's an impression that Muslims suffer disproportionately from the rule of dictators, tyrants, unelected presidents, kings, emirs, and various other strongmen - and it's accurate. A careful analysis by Frederic L. Pryor of Swarthmore College in the Middle East Quarterly ("Are Muslim Countries Less Democratic?") concludes that "In all but the poorest countries, Islam is associated with fewer political rights." The fact that majority-Muslim countries are less democratic makes it tempting to conclude that the religion of Islam, their common factor, is itself incompatible with democracy. I disagree with that conclusion. Today's Muslim predicament, rather, reflects historical circumstances more than...

Last week’s elections in Turkey prompted New York Sun contributing editor Hillel Halkin to recall an article he wrote for the Forward a dozen years ago about evidence he uncovered that Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, was half Jewish (his father being Doenmeh): Who but a member of a religious minority would want so badly to eliminate religion from the identity of a Muslim majority that, after the genocide of Turkey's Christian Armenians in World War I and the expulsion of nearly all of its Christian Greeks in the early 1920s, was 99% of Turkey's population? … Halkin...

Eighty years ago Ataturk transformed Turkey into a secular state — ending the centuries-old caliphate, and requiring Turks to change the hats on their heads and the script with which they wrote. Last week the AK party won a great victory in Turkish elections with 45 percent of the vote, which amounted to an endorsement or at least acceptance of its gradual movement of Turkey away from the rigid secularism installed by Ataturk. Before the election millions of Turks had come out to the streets to rally against a perceived threat to the secular regime from the ruling AKP. Clearly...

IZMIR, Turkey – Choking the highways and crammed onto ferries, hundreds of thousands of Turks streamed into this port city on Sunday in an enormous show of opposition to the pro-Islamic ruling party, increasing pressure on the government ahead of early elections. Some 1.5 million protesters carried anti-government banners, red-and-white Turkish flags and pictures of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the secular republic in 1923. Turkish flags hung from balconies and windows, as well as buses and fishing boats and yachts bobbing in Izmir's bay. “I am here to defend my country,” said Yuksel Uysal, a teacher. “I am here...

MORE than 25,000 people marched in defence of secularism in Turkey yesterday, shocked at the killing of a leading judge by an Islamic extremist gunman. Angry crowds outside the Ankara mosque, where the funeral of the murdered judge Mustafa Ozbilgin was being held, pushed government ministers, who some see as being too religiously minded, on their way inside. And outside the country's top administrative court, protesters booed Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister, and called for the government's resignation. Four more people were detained yesterday in connection with the Wednesday killing, when a suspected Islamic lawyer stormed into a chamber of...

Please click the following link and send an email to the Mayor of Rome protesting the erection of a mass murderer Mustafa kemal Ataturk. http://www.ian.cc/acciones.php

'Cologne Caliph' jailed for life Kaplan was found guilty of plotting to overthrow Turkey's secular state A Turkish court has sentenced a Muslim radical to life in prison for plotting to overthrow Turkey's secular system.Metin Kaplan was convicted of a plot to crash an aircraft into the mausoleum of modern Turkey's founder Kemal Ataturk. The court also convicted Kaplan, who has been dubbed the Caliph of Cologne and leads a group that wants to create an Islamic state in Turkey, of treason. He was extradited from Germany in 2004 after Turkey banned the death penalty. He had been in...

Just a year ago, Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, promised to shed his uniform and give up his position as head of the armed forces by the end of 2004. It seems unlikely he'll will meet that pledge. Musharraf made the promise as part of a deal under which opposition parties validated his presidency and accepted constitutional amendments that added to the president's powers. The opposition (and U.S. commentators) started beating the drums about Musharraf's "broken promise" weeks ago. The main Islamist party, the United Action Assembly (MMA), has staged a number of demonstrations.... Musharraf has also come under pressure...

29th October marked the 81st anniversary of the Turkish Republic. A secular country that has succeeded to survive, progress and to remain loyal to the principles introduced by its founder Mustafa Kemal Pasha, otherwise known as Ataturk - the Father of Turks. A framework in which under no domestic or international pressure the Turkish authorities have compromised on. The Turks today are celebrating and deserve to be congratulated for their untiring efforts and their love for their country. At the same time my ancient land has sunken in the darkest period of its history since the Arab invasion of Iran...

29th October marked the 81st anniversary of the Turkish Republic. A secular country that has succeeded to survive, progress and to remain loyal to the principles introduced by its founder Mustafa Kemal Pasha, otherwise known as Atatürk – the Father of Turks. A framework in which under no domestic or international pressure the Turkish authorities have compromised on. The Turks today are celebrating and deserve to be congratulated for their untiring efforts and their love for their country. At the same time my ancient land has sunken in the darkest period of its history since the Arab invasion of Iran...

14 June 2004 -- Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer told Muslim countries that democracy is inevitable in the Middle East and that each nation must determine the pace of its own democratic reforms. Sezer's remarks were addressed to the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) meeting today in Istanbul. He said the group's members need to consider the future of the Islamic world. "We have observed that recently the attention of the international community has been directed towards the Islamic world. Discussions that have intensified over the question 'What went wrong?' should not only be limited to scholars. We...

November 10 - The Turkish nation paused on Monday to mark the anniversary of the death of its founding father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Atatürk passed away at 9:05 am on November 10, 1938. At that moment, 65 years later, All of Turkey stopped to mark a minute’s silence, with traffic halted in the street and Turkish citizens standing to attention. In his message to commemorate the passing of Atatürk, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said that the principles that the nation’s founding father had laid down would continue to guide the country in the future. Atatürk was the symbol of national...

hy is Turkey the only Muslim democracy in the Mideast? In a region where "democracy" means one-man-one-vote-one-time, how has Turkey's republic managed to survive for 79 years? That's not just a record for the Mideast. It's longer than any comparably democratic regime in France, Belgium or Germany, three countries currently beset by doubt about whether Turkey is a fit candidate for the European Union — able to meet their own allegedly high moral and political standards. That will be decided in Copenhagen in December, but European pretensions aside, it is remarkable that the republican form of government Kemal Attaturk imposed...

To usher in the 21st century, Time Magazine asked its readers to vote their choice for "the most influential people of the 20th century." The contest quickly became a two-man race, with the top contenders each gaining about a third of the vote (and the other 98 nominees sharing the other third). The winner, with 33.8%, was Winston Churchill. The runner-up, with 33.2%, was Mustafa Kemal Ataturk -- a result that prompted most of the Western world to emit a collective "Mustafa who?" Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is certainly less well known than Franklin Roosevelt (12%), Fidel Castro (11%), Lenin (3%),...