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Turkey’s military shun reception with hijab-wearing first lady

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Turkey’s staunchly secularist military shunned the president’s Republic Day reception on Friday evening, attended for the first time by his headscarf-wearing wife, in a snub to the country’s pious rulers.

In the past President Abdullah Gül had given two separate parties, pandering to secularist sensitivities by conducting the higher-profile evening affair without his spouse, but this year he held just one event, which she co-hosted.

The military held a separate party, Turkish media reported, demonstrating the lingering divide between the secularist old guard and the rising class of conservative Muslims, epitomised by Gül and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

ataturk 29October

“The military should have come here. The place for a reception tonight is the presidential palace,” broadcaster CNN Turk quoted Erdogan, who added he opposed the idea of a reception elsewhere.

(Photo: Turkish military officers attend a Republic Day ceremony at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of secular Turkey, in Ankara October 29, 2010/Umit Bektas)

Republic Day commemorates the founding of a secularist, modern Turkey on the ruins the Ottoman Empire by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923. It is traditionally a day in which the presence of Ataturk, Turkey’s revered first President, looms large.


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Aylin D. Miller

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3 responses to “Turkey’s military shun reception with hijab-wearing first lady”

  1. Robert Avatar
    Robert

    OMG! What is happening to my beloved Motherland?!! What part of SECULARISM, which Ataturk fought so hard to achieve for the new republic in 1923, does Gul and Erdogan NOT understand?!!! Please take your Islamic fanatacism and fanatics out of my Motherland and go to Iran, Saudi Arabia or Yemen! Please, if you have any love for Turkey and her people, and if you truly love Allah, then do not further pollute my beloved Motherland (my grandfathers and their relatives fought with Ataturk, some dying for Turkey, while my father and uncles fought to prevent communism and oppression in Korea during that war!)!! Please stop embarrassing the Turkish people in the eyes of the world, not only in Turkey, but in the US and Europe also! You’ve already collectively done enough damage!! Please, I implore you President Gul and PM Erdogan, with all due respect, do the right thing and stop hurting my Motherland and her people any further!!

  2. Hikmet Ersoy Avatar
    Hikmet Ersoy

    The Turkish military are the only guarantors of democracy in Turkey. The West never understood that. Now that Erdogan and his cronies have shown their true colours of Islamism and fascist tendencies in running the country as a true police state, perhaps those who propped him up will wake up when he refuses the missile defence shield. I say the Turkish Army is the only friend the West has in Turkey because it is the only truly democratic and secular institution left standing. Where else in the world did you see the army take power through coup d’etats to topple corrupt, incompetant and self serving politicians, to turn around and hand over power voluntarily back to civilians through democratic elections again? Only the Turkish Army has done that. I salute them and wish that the West realizes how wrong it has been by siding with Erdogan the Sly in undermining the credibility, honour and power of the Turkish Armed Forces.

  3. vdemirw Avatar
    vdemirw

    Arkadaslar Ataturk onune gelenin carsafini veya donunu cikarmadi .Bildiginiz gibi onun zamanin da veya ondan oncede isteyen istedigini giyerdi…Ataturk un kurdugu TURKIYE CUMHURIYETIN DE din ve devlet konusu ayrildi Yani Bu makamda olan lar MESAI ZAMANI seccade acamaz veya carsafla on plana cikmamali. Zaten DIN kisi ile Allah arasin dadir. TURKIYE CUMHURIYETI KURALLARININ TERSINI YAPMAK ISGAL ETTIGI SISTEMI BILMEMEK DEMEKTIR…..
    BUNLARI BILE BILE OZEL GUNLERDE ve DURUMLAR DA BIR IKI SAATLIGINE CARSAFLI KARINI ON PLANA SOKMAK KERIZLIKTIR…. Zaten carsafli karin degil SEN MAKAMI ISGAL ETMISSIN KARIN DEGILDI .Anti-musali yahudi uydurmasi FIRST LADY tirasini birak. Onlar fahiselik reklamidir ( tek disi kalmis canavardir yani Ata nin nutkundan )
    Yani Ata nin yaptigi gibi Mesai disinda ISTEDIGIN KADAR CARSAFLARA ODANDA OZEL HAYATINDA DOLANIP DUR ve SUPHESIZ NAMAZ KILMAYA DA DEVAM ET O ALLAH LA SENIN ARANDA KARINI HERKESIN GOZUNE SOKMA ILK PLANDA MAHREMDIR ve KARAMAN IN KOYUNU ANTI-MUSALI YAHUDI NIN OYUNU atasozune KURBAN OLMA

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