[MadIvan]

The first Turkish win at an international beauty pageant was in 1934. To put us in the same boat as those murderous freaks in Nigeria is a huge insult

Take it up with the organisers. I am suggesting that Miss World didn't get that much attention before the business in Nigeria, and now it's widely watched - they may try it on with your country next.

Regards, Ivan

[Turk2]

What are they going to do? Have someone say the same thing in Turkey? I heard the comment and just laughed. It was an innocent and harmless remark. The fact that those Nigerians somehow took it as blasphemy and decided to use it as pretext to settle old rivalries among tribes has nothing to do with my country. I read nothing about this 'controvercial' statement in Turkish newspapers until the death toll reached something around 150 or so and the papers had to give the excuse behind the killings. The only time in recent memory when Nigeria had come up on the front page of Turkish newspapers was when the sharia court decided to stone Amina Lawal to death. The news raised great shock, protest marches were made, the Minister of Justice and the Foreign Ministry officially condemned the verdict and protested with demands for immediate fair retrial and release. We have held and won dozens of beauty pageants in Turkey before. This one will be no different.

[Turk2]

Sorry it was in 1932 by the way, not 1934. 1934 was when the Civil Law was passed giving men and women equal political and social rights years before a lot of European countries.