Tag Archives: Turkey

Not Erdoğan (2)

With Islamist Turkish president Erdoğan continuing to take advantage of the failed coup that  he has described as a “gift from God”, here’s another quote from an infinitely greater Turk, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk: Religion is an important institution. A nation without religion … Continue reading

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Not Erdoğan

Given the news  from Turkey, a quote or two from Mustafa Kemal Atatürk seemed appropriate: I have no religion, and at times I wish all religions at the bottom of the sea. He is a weak ruler who needs religion … Continue reading

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As We Await the End Times

Cross-posted on Ricochet. The art of writing a first paragraph is said to lie in the ability to draw the reader in. I would say that Lily Lynch’s remarkable new piece in The Balkanist passes that test very well indeed: … Continue reading

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Science and Economics

Cross-posted on Ricochet: The Guardian: One of Saudi Arabia’s leading conservative clerics has said women who drive risk damaging their ovaries and bearing children with clinical problems, countering activists who are trying to end the Islamic kingdom’s male-only driving rules. … Continue reading

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Trampled in Trebizond

Cross-posted on the Corner: The Economist reports: On July 5 the mufti of Trabzon gathered with other citizens for the first Friday prayers of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, not at a mosque but at an ancient Byzantine church. … Continue reading

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Erdogan’s “Interest-rate Lobby” and Other Stories

Cross-posted on the Corner: So what have those scamps from Turkey’s “mildly Islamist” AK (the Economist) been talking about lately? Here (reported in Hurriyet) is President Abdullah Gül, an individual generally seen as more emollient than thuggish Prime Minister Erdogan: … Continue reading

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Turkey & the EU

Cross-posted on the Corner Andrew McCarthy has a piece on possible Turkish membership of the EU up on the home page, very well worth reading in many respects, but not least for this observation: In Turkey, the administrators of the … Continue reading

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Erdogan, Again

Cross-posted on the Corner: Turkey’s thuggish (“mildly Islamist”, if you are The Economist) prime minister Erdogan is doing his bit to restrict free speech. The Seattle Times reports: Prompted by the anti-Muslim video produced in California that has stirred deadly … Continue reading

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The Ottoman years

Frustrated With West, Turks Revel in Empire Lost: Mr. Osman’s send-off was just the latest manifestation of what sociologists call “Ottomania,” a harking back to an era marked by conquest and cultural splendor during which sultans ruled an empire stretching … Continue reading

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The limits of pluralism, and the necessity of an identity

I just finished Vali Nasr’s Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World. Very much in the mold of Fareed Zakaria’s The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home … Continue reading

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