The end of Ataturkism

Submitted by Joseph P. Martino (United States), Oct 6, 2014 at 16:34

I spent 2 semesters as a visiting professor in Istanbul, 1999 - 2000. As a member of the county Central Committee of an American political party, I was particularly interested in how Turkish political parties operated. I spoke with Turkish politicians from parties that eventually became the AKP. I followed the rise of the AKP. What I also noticed was that there was almost no one left alive who remembered Ataturk. His imprint on Turkey was fading, because he had no successors.

In addition, the birth rate of the Muslim peasants was far higher than the birth rate of the "cosmopolitan" Turks who were my associates at the university. Ataturkism was simply drowned in the flood is Muslims who were no longer going to put up with the prior restrictions on them, such as graduates of Muslim schools being denied commissions in the military.

What we are seeing today is the working-out of what was going on nearly twenty years ago.

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