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 cannot survive. Yet it is also very important to note that religion is a link between Allah and the individual believer. The brokerage of the pious cannot be permitted. Those who use religion for their own benefit are detestable. We are against such a situation and will not allow it. Those who use religion in such a manner have fooled our people; it is against just such people that we have fought and will continue to fight…
The fingers are pointing at the Gulen movement as being behind the coup. So it’s now two Islamist factions fighting, rather than the traditional secular coup. Go figure:
http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2016/07/is-fethullah-g%C3%BClen-behind-turkeys-coup.html
I presumed the coup was faked by Erdogan as a pretense to crack down. But maybe not. The secularists seemed to have been purged from the military in fake trials several years ago.
Something to that, perhaps. But Erdogan is clearly clamping down on secularists too.