Tag: Ataturk

Happy Republic Day Turkish-Americans!

Today, October 29, 2010, Turkish Americans and Turks around the world proudly celebrate the 87th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. The great visionary leader, Ataturk, felt in 1923, that it was not enough to only survive a war of independence but also to excel in all aspects of modern life by rising to the top in science, technology, education, medicines, energy, economy, tourism, sports, trade, defense, and others. Today, an emerging regional power and a new global player, Turkey, stands as a monument to Ataturk’s dreams. Turkish Americans salute the great Ataturk, his magnificent creation Turkey and the Turkish nation, as well as the global Turkish-Turkic realm, standing tall and strong in the face of many challenges and threats.

Below, please find the congratulatory messages of Obama, via Secretary Clinton, the Turkish Ambassador, and the president of ATAA, all located in Washington DC.

***

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
October 28, 2010

ON BEHALF OF PRESIDENT OBAMA AND THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES,

I congratulate the people of Turkey on the anniversary of your founding this October 29.

In the 87 years since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk set out a new vision for the Turkish people, Turkey has risen to become a leading economic power and an important presence on the world stage. The opportunities for Turkey to lead in the 21st century are even greater.

The relationship between Turkey and the United States is broader and more dynamic today than ever before. Both President Obama and I made visiting Turkey a priority last year because we recognize the importance of a strong partnership between our nations – a partnership based on mutual respect, mutual interests, and mutual responsibility. The Framework for Strategic Economic and Commercial Cooperation to boost trade and investment is just one example of how we are strengthening ties between our counties. As NATO allies, we also stand shoulder to shoulder to help create a safer and more secure environment for future generations, in Afghanistan and around the world.

I wish the people of Turkey a safe and happy holiday as you celebrate this special anniversary and all you have accomplished. We look forward to continuing to work closely with Turkey toward our shared goals and aspirations.

***
Türkiye Cumhuriyeti VaŞngton Büyükelçisi Namık Tan’ın Cumhuriyet Bayramı Mesajı

Amerika BirleŞk Devletleri’nde yaŞayan Türk Toplumunun değerli üyeleri,

Cumhuriyetimizin kuruluŞunun 87. yıldönümünü büyük bir gurur, mutluluk ve coŞkuyla kutluyoruz.

CUMHURIYET BAYRAMIMIZ KUTLU OLSUN !

Ulu Önder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’ün liderlik ettiği efsanevi bir bağımsızlık mücadelesinin ardından aziz ulusumuz tarafından kurulan Cumhuriyetimiz en değerli varlığımızdır. Bu anlamlı günde, baŞta yüce Atatürk olmak üzere, Cumhuriyetimizin kuruluŞunda emeği geçenleri ve Cumhuriyetimiz ile Vatanımızın ilelebet varlığını sürdürmesi için canlarını veren aziz Şehitlerimizi, kanlarını döken gazilerimizi saygıyla anıyorum.

Köklü tarihinden, zengin kültüründen ve her Şeyden önemlisi, aziz milletimizden güç alan Cumhuriyetimiz, geride kalan 87 yılda, Atatürk’ün ifadeleriyle, “mesut, muvaffak ve muzaffer” olmuŞtur. KuruluŞundan bu yana Atatürk’ün belirlediği çağdaŞ uygarlığa ulaŞma hedefi doğrultusunda hızla ilerleyen Cumhuriyetimiz emsalsiz bir baŞarı hikayesidir. Demokratik ve laik yapısı, liberal ekonomisi, zengin sosyo-kültürel kimliğiyle, bölgesinde ve ötesinde barıŞ ve istikrarın tesisinde katkıları aranan bir ülke haline gelen Türkiye’yi daha parlak bir gelecek beklemektedir.

Bugün ülkemizin katettiği ve hepimize haklı bir gurur veren mesafe, etkisini uluslararası alanda açık Şekilde göstermektedir. Ülkemizin son dönemde BM Güvenlik Konseyi geçici üyeliğinin yanısıra, İslam Konferansı TeŞkilatı, Avrupa Konseyi Parlamenter Meclisi ve Kimyasal Silahların Önlenmesi Örgütü BaŞkanlıkları ile NATO Genel Sekreter Yardımcılığı gibi önemli görevleri üstlenmesi, Avrupa’nın 6., dünyanın 16. büyük ekonomisi haline gelmesi, küresel ekonomik sorunlara çözüm bulunması amacıyla tesis edilen G-20 oluŞumunun en aktif üyelerinden biri olması bu baŞarı tablosunun somut yansımalarıdır.

Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’ndeki Türk Toplumunun değerli üyeleri,

ABD’deki Türk toplumunun, gerek ülkemizin tanıtımı, gerek davalarımızın anlatılması yönünde sürdüregeldiği çalıŞmalar memnuniyet vericidir. Önceki ve halihazır görevlerim çerçevesinde geliŞimine bizzat tanıklık ettiğim Türk-Amerikan Toplumunun ulaŞtığı seviye bizleri gururlandırmaktadır. Derneklerimizin ABD’nin dört bir yanında düzenlediği etkinliklerin baŞarısı hepimizi mutlu etmektedir. Evvelce de vurgulamıŞ olduğum üzere, yapılanların yeterli görülmeyerek, toplumumuzun daha mükemmele doğru her alanda aktif olmaya devam etmesi fevkalade önem taŞımaktadır. Türk-Amerikan toplumunun bu çerçevede yürüttüğü çalıŞmaları önümüzdeki dönemde artarak sürdüreceğine inanıyorum.

Her vesileyle dile getirdiğim gibi, gücünü Türk halkının geleneksel değerlerinden, birlik ve dayanıŞma duygusundan alan geniŞ bir ailenin birbirine sıcak duygularla bağlı fertleri olarak hep birlikte el ele verdiğimizde, aŞılamayacak hiçbir engel yoktur. Omuz omuza ilerleyeceğimiz bu yolda sizlere güveniyorum.

Ülkümüz, gönlümüz ve ufkumuz birdir. Bu birliğin kaynağı 87. yaŞını kutladığımız Cumhuriyetimiz ve eŞsiz vatanımız Türkiyemizdir.

Cumhuriyetimiz gücünü dünyanın dört köŞesine yayılmıŞ tüm Türklerin aklından, yüreğinden ve vatan sevgisinden almaktadır.

Bu duygu ve düŞüncelerle 29 Ekim Cumhuriyet Bayramınızı en içten iyi dileklerimle kutluyor, selam, sevgi ve saygılarımı sunuyorum.

Namık TAN
T.C. VaŞington Büyükelçisi

***

CUMHURIYETIMIZIN 87. YILI KUTLU OLSUN!

Türk-Amerikan Toplumunun Değerli Üyeleri,

Bugün Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nin kuruluŞunun 87. yılını hep beraber coşkuyla kutluyoruz.

Ulusal kurtuluŞ mücadelemizde elde edilen askeri zaferin ardından büyük özverilerle yola devam eden Mustafa Kemal ve Türk toplumu bağımsız yeni Türk devletinin egemenlik hakkının yalnızca halka ait olduğunu ilan etmiŞler ve 1 Kasım 1922’de çıkardıkları kararname ile “İstanbul’daki Şekl-i hükümetin 16 Mart 1920’de tarihe intikal ettiğini” belirtmiŞlerdir. Modern çağın getirdiği laiklik, demokrasi, kadın-erkek eŞitliği, ulusal vatandaŞlık, sosyal hukuk devleti gibi vazgeçilmez ilkelerin ancak Cumhuriyet rejimi içerisinde uygulanabileceğini öngören Atatürk önderliğindeki birinci meclis 29 Ekim 1923’de Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nin kurulduğunu tüm dünyaya ilan etmiŞtir.

87 yıllık süre içerisinde geldiğimiz noktaya bakıldığında Cumhuriyetimizin ve Atatürk devrimlerinin Türk aydınlanma tarihinde ne kadar büyük bir öneme sahip olduğu daha iyi anlaŞılacaktır. Bu vesileyle sizleri Cumhuriyetimizin kazanımlarını bir kez daha hatırlamaya ve sahip çıkmaya davet ediyoruz. Bugün, Türkiye dünya’nın 16’ıncı ve Avrupa’nın 6’ıncı en büyük ekonomisine sahiptir. Bugün, Türkiye dünya’nın 7’inci en çok turist ağırlayan ülkesidir. Bugün, Türkiye, diplomatlarıyla, ordusuyla, giriŞimcileriyle, ve sivil toplum örgütleriyle, Avrupa ve Afrika’dan, Kafkas ve Orta Asya’ya kadar bölgesel lider konumuna gelmektedir.

Bu önemli günde baŞta Cumhuriyetimizin kurucusu Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’ü, kahraman ordu arkadaŞlarını, aziz Şehitlerimizi minnet, Şükran ve rahmetle anıyoruz, ve Türk toplumunun iradesini ve azmini kutluyoruz.

Cumhuriyetimizin 87. Yılı Kutlu Olsun!

Saygılarımızla,

Günay Evinch (Övünç) Kürşad Doğru
ATAA BaŞkanı ATAA Mütevelli Heyeti BaŞkanı

***

Dear Members of the Turkish American Community and Friends of Türkiye,

Today we celebrate the 87th Anniversary of the Turkish Republic.

Following the Turkish War of Independence, which ended in a decisive Turkish victory for the Turkish people in August 1922, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk embarked on intensive and comprehensive reforms, as the Turkish people transitioned from Empire to Republic, autocracy to democracy, theocracy to secularity, and a society based on equality, plurality, and national citizenship.

October 29, 1923 marked the end not of only the Ottoman Empire which spanned from 1299 to 1919, but also a brutal occupation by foreign powers between 1919 and 1922.

On this important day, the Assembly of Turkish American Associations once again invites you to commemorate Atatürk’s legacy and achievements, remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can live and live freely. The Assembly of Turkish Americans celebrates the birth of the Turkish Republic as well as the determination and passion of the Turkish people for a better life, better country, and a better world.

Günay Evinch (Övünç) Kürşad Doğru
President, ATAA Chairman, ATAA Board of Trustees

***

October 30, 2010
DEAD HEADS by Cem Ryan

DEAD HEADS: Headscarves, Turbans…Shrouds for the Living

It’s now all the chi-chi fashion rage! The prurient fashion designing male politicians of both sides are again trying to determine what Turkish women should wear on their heads. And where, and when, too. The secular left offers the Iranian model with a dash of hair showing. The so-called pious, ruling party, convicted by the Turkish constitutional court of being the center of the anti-secular movement in the nation, argues in the craven words of democracy and freedom. Whether

Üsküdar, Istanbul, November 2003

it’s abaya, chador, burqa, nigab, turban, hijab, it’s all part of a women’s democratic fashion choice. And the prime minister himself has proclaimed the covering of women as a “political symbol.” In fact, it’s a symbol of stupidity and backwardness. It’s a political dialogue, at the expense of the dignity of Turkish women, intended to put them and keep them in a “living” kefen (burial shroud). It is a lifelong headlock—social, political, intellectual, physiological, and psychological—a death grip until they meet their literal end in the grave.

“Be sure of it!” challenged the jealous Othello, for he must be certain of his wife’s infidelity. “Give me the ocular proof,” he demanded of the treacherous Iago, taking him by the throat. And in this manner Desdemona would be condemned by her own version of a headscarf, her handkerchief, the ocular proof of her infidelity. Except it was false, planted evidence. But she was a woman so she died anyway.

The headscarf issue that so besets and divides Turkey is also “ocular proof.” But of what? National piety, that’s what. It had allowed America to call Turkey a “moderate Islamic nation.” It satisfied the American need for symbolic gestures, like the upright purple fingers of Iraqi voters signified democratic progress. For without such signs how could America, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and their fellow Americans be sure of Turkey’s democratic moderate Islamic piety? And if you’re wondering how a backward-thinking political party like the AKP came to be the ruling party of the country of Atatürk, it’s because of AKP’s complete collaboration with America’s disastrous Middle East policy. And sadly, while President Obama earlier indicated differently, he too de facto continues the nonsensical Bush administration’s policy of Turkish moderate Islam. And the ruling party, the AKP, loves all of it, particularly the headscarf part. The prime minister also encourages women to open themselves to the idea of having at least three children. Ah such loving political concern by the prime minister for the most delicate areas of femininity.

It should come as no surprise to even a casual reader of the Koran that the Turkish headscarf issue has nothing to do with Islam. It is a tradition that was made-in-America, not Mecca, and certainly not in Turkey. The genuine tradition of wearing a headscarf arose from women field workers in rural areas for protection from extreme weather conditions. In other words, the headscarf came about from a physical necessity that had nothing to do with religion. This has been appropriated, more correctly, stolen, by religious-mongering politicians and converted into a bogus religious duty. In fact, it is an imperative that arises from imperialism and enslavement.

The historian Eric Hobsbawn explains this phenomenon in his book, The Invention of Tradition. (1) One example is especially relevant to today’s Turkey. Do you think that the Scottish kilt and its fabric-coded clans were part of some long cultural tradition in Scotland? Wrong! It was invented by the ruling power, England, to divide tribes into definable groups, thus to better control them. In like manner was the political turban invented by America for Turkish consumption by gullible women at the hands of scheming male politicians. Turkish women, wise up! It’s always the same old story with you! Don’t allow yourselves to be led by ignoramuses, no matter what political party they pretend to represent!

Consider this. Without the headscarf Turkish women look, for the most part, much the same as any western women. Don’t bother what’s in the head of Turkish women. For Turkish politicians, it’s what’s on it that counts. In their eyes, women are merely objects, with particular prurient focus on their hair. The admonition for women to cover their heads is made by men not by the Koran.

The American woman presented as some sort of authority by the Turkish Daily News article entitled “American seeking a democratic Turkey” (Feb. 2, 2008) said that, for her, the headscarf symbolizes that “I am a Muslim woman.” Covering is “mandatory” and an “obligation,” she said. This is nonsense. She was either misreading or not reading the Koran. Indeed, she was manufacturing her own tradition. One may wear whatever they want on their heads, whether a baseball cap or a lampshade. And one may justify doing so or not. But the justification for Turkish women to wear headscarves resides not in the Koran, but in their blind, thoughtless subservience to political men. One may make up one’s own rules about anything but there is no such rule in the Koran. “There must be some wisdom to it,” she insisted, demonstrating blind faith and little else. How sad a limitation for this woman who professes to be a “seeker.”

The Koran, a precisely worded text, contains no language requiring women to cover their heads. None whatsoever! It renders specific procedures about many things. For washing: “hands as far as the elbow… feet to the ankles.” In the desert? No water? Use “clean sand” (5.5). For apostates who preach against God: “have their hands and feet cut off on alternate sides” (5:31). Regarding food: don’t eat “strangled animals” (5.3) and “kill no game while on pilgrimage” (5:95). Of course, it does admonish all people as “children of Adam” to cover their shameful parts, but this is mythological derivative material from the Bible and the fall of man (7:25). And for all its enormous specificity, it never mentions women’s hair. There is much information in this fact.

In reality, the Koran is protective of women. Women should “draw their veils close round them” so they will not be molested (33:57)—by men of course, the same kind of men who now seek to enslave Turkish women. They should “cover their bosoms,” not display “their adornments except such as normally revealed” and not “stamp their feet when walking” (24:30). But there is nothing therein about wearing a headscarf in order to be a “Muslim woman.” This is a manmade myth, a sham, that is also dangerously stigmatizing of those women who don’t cover. Are they any less Islamic? And why should women bear the full signifying burden anyway? The answer is simple. First, because of the Turkish government’s complicity with America’s political project in the Middle East. Second, because men, particularly pious political men, said so in order to keep women in a subservient role. What a bad, sick joke on women! What a bad, sick joke that women play on themselves!

Of course, women can wear anything they choose. But they should know why they do so. And if they choose to wear a headscarf, they do so, not for Allah or Jahweh or Jesus or Mary or Mohammed, and certainly not for the Koran. They do so for politicians. And that’s just stupid. They should take great care not to end up like Desdemona, torn apart by the jealous, deceitful hands of their own personal and political Othellos.

Cem Ryan, Istanbul

(1) Hobsbawm, Eric. The Invention of Tradition.Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992. (2) Turkish Daily News. American seeking a democratic Turkey. 2 February 2008.

October 14, 2010
MONKEYS IN WONDERLAND

Silivri is sunflower country, vast undulating sun-filled land that rolls down to the Marmara Sea about 72 kilometers west of Istanbul. Silivri Prison squats therein on spoiled high ground 72 million light-years beyond the rule of law. Here, in the best of fascist traditions, the so-called Ergenekon coup case is being tried in a converted gymnasium. Think Stalin. Think Hitler. Think Pinochet. Think Turkey. Think Auschwitz.

The charges are vague. The proof is a hodge-podge of illegal wiretaps, secret witnesses (think Spanish Inquisition), prosecutorial leaks to pro-government newspapers, planted and otherwise tainted evidence illegally obtained. Concern about the provenance of such evidence is ignored by the court. The dossiers against the accused—journalists, labor leaders, lawyers, writers, retired military officers, all defenders of the republic established by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk—number in the hundreds, the pages therein in the hundreds of thousands. Think Charles Dickens’ Bleak House. The defendants on trial still do not know the specific charges against them. Some have been incarcerated for more than two years. There is no notion of habeas corpus. The case reads as if assembled by an infinite number of monkeys banging away on computers while juggling scissors and paste pots. The chief prosecutor, allegedly a lawyer, has the appropriate last name of Öz.

When I attended the session on 13 August the chief prosecutor was somewhere on the yellow brick road and thus absent, as were all his assistants. So the three judges interrogated the accused. This in itself is incredible. These are the same judges that are supposed to render a verdict of guilt or innocence. How can they be impartial if they are also helping the prosecutor make the case? How can they remain open-minded and just if they are emotionally involved in the prosecution? This is wildly prejudicial and trashes any notion regarding the presumption of innocence. More importantly, by directly interrogating the defendants, the judges have already accepted the validity of the evidence. Defense counsels were challenging the legality of the evidence but to no avail. The judges had already de facto accepted it. To whom should evidentiary appeals be made? Zeus? Telephone numbers and snippets of alleged conversation were read into the record. Do you know this man? No? Do you remember this telephone number? No. Amazingly, a listing of the prescription medications taken by an army general not even charged appeared in the dossier. What a fiasco! No corroborating evidence or witnesses were called. The session was just one long boring rendition of irrelevancies, immaterialities, and hearsay. On droned the three judges, See-No-Legal, Hear-No-Legal, Speak-No-Legal. An embarrassing travesty. Think Emile Zola’s J’Accuse.

In Chile, Pinochet executed all opposed to his regime in the football stadium in Santiago. In Turkey, a slower political genocide is unfolding, this one in a prison exercise hall. The victims? The heirs of the Turkish secular republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The Turkish army, the supposed defender of Atatürk’s masterpiece has been neutered. It quietly licks its wounds and feathers its nest in incompetent solitude.

Yes, a political genocide of epic dimension is raging throughout the land. It reeks of injustice. But who cares? It is aided and abetted by the west. But who cares? We know where the traitors are. But where are the patriots? It’s the most disgusting of monkey business. Anyone care for a banana?

Cem Ryan
Istanbul

August 22, 2010
A Heart of Darkness Envelopes Turkey: A Letter to President Obama (20 July 2010) English/Turkish

JAMES C. RYAN, Ph.D.

[Letterhead Redacted]

20 July 2010

The Honorable Barack H. Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
USA

Dear Mr. President:

Truth is still on the march in Turkey; the lies and treachery of the present government are in plain sight. But justice is dead. You westerners have killed it by your support of the AKP regime of Recep Tayyip Erdoĝan. Mr. President, you recently referred to so-called democracy in Turkey as a “Muslim Democracy.” Religion and democracy don’t go together, Mr. President. And you, above all people, should know it. You spoke so glowingly about Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in the Turkish Grand National Assembly in May 2009. When you speak of Atatürk and democracy in the same breath, as you did, you must always emphasize three words—SECULAR, SECULAR, SECULAR.

This is my fourth letter to you since your inauguration, one every six months. I have yet to receive the courtesy of the slightest acknowledgement of their receipt by the White House. I know if the letters had contained threats to you, your secret service agents would have knocked my door down in the middle of the night. I also know that when I sent you campaign contributions in 2008 I received not only e-mail thank-yous, but an international telephone call from your headquarters to verify that I was a valid international contributor. Is this what defines your administration’s standards of courtesy and openness, Mr. President, money? I hope not, but I think so. But perhaps you have read my letters but acknowledging them brings you embarassment because you have so thoroughly embraced the AKP regime. So be it, Mr. President. But what about common courtesy?

So-called “democracy” remains in critical condition in Turkey. Forget Erdoĝan’s pathetic antics about Gaza. Forget about his cozy relations with Iran, Sudan and other gangster “Islamic” regimes. They are of utmost embarrassment to the Turkish people but mean nothing compared to the civilian coup that he has engineered. Like Hitler in the thirties, all was done under the veil of “democracy.” And under that same veil, the jails are bursting with leftists opposed to the brutality of the Erdoĝan regime. Where Hitler used the SA brownshirts to do his dirty work, Erdoĝan hides behind the veils and headscarves of his AKP women. Turkey’s highest court ruled that Erdoĝan and his party are the center of anti-secular activities against the Turkish nation. In America that would be called treason. Like Hitler, Erdoĝan has destroyed the legal system by packing the courts with his own judges and prosecutors.

You should be particularly worried to know that the Turkish army has been completely compromised by a hoax called Ergenekon. Not only does Erdoĝan now have the police force and the gendarmes, he has the army too. And you are now well aware of the trigger-happy, loud-mouthed incompetence of the Turkish prime minister in the foreign affairs arena. Turkey is on the march, BACKWARDS, to the gloriously incompetent days of the Ottomans. This is what your gloriously incompetent CIA along with numerous gloriously treasonous Turks have accomplished. Erdoĝan and his ilk champion this as some Islamic rennaissance. This is utter nonsense.

If you read the books I sent to you with my first letter you know this. The only “enlightenment period” was due entirely to one man, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Described and defamed as just “another ruthless general” in a recent article in the lamentable Economist, Atatürk used the energy generated by the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923) to lift Turkey from the Middle Ages mentality of the Ottomans to modern times, and in many ways beyond. For example, he gave women the right to vote in 1930 and to stand for election in 1934, decades before many European countries (France, Italy, Greece, Switzerland). It is this grand achievement, by history’s most remarkable soldier-statesmen-educator, that has been destroyed by Erdoĝan and his fellow Islamo-fascist thugs. And these same thugs, who publicly proclaim women’s inferiority to men, bring their bizarrely dressed wives to receive warm welcomes in the White House.

Oh the horror wrought by American support! A heart of darkness envelopes Turkey, Mr. President: extrajudicial wiretapping and surveilance, unconstitutional imprisonments, the trashing of human rights protections, wanton abuse of press freedom protections, corruption and theft by the ruling AKP of epic proportion, and the destruction of the Turkish army. No wonder the Economist magazine feels free to debase Atatürk. Good job, all you westerners. Bad job, Mr. President.

But there is a force rising, Mr. President. And there are many, many Turks who refuse to take the garbage dealt to them by the AKP over the past seven years. And the force is energized by the words of Kemal Atatürk. You may not know or remember them Mr. President, but you should mark them well. As I told you in my earlier letters, I remind you again. The day of reckoning is coming. The day is near. Read his words, they describe Turkey today:

You, the Turkish youth! Your primary duty is to forever protect and defend Turkish independence and the Turkish Republic. This is the mainstay of your existence and of your future.

This foundation is your most precious treasure in the future, as well, there may be malevolence, within and abroad, which will seek to deny your birthright. If one day you are compelled to defend your independence and the republic, you shall not reflect on the conditions and possibilities of the situation in which you find yourself, in order to accomplish your mission. These conditions and possibilities may appear unfavorable. The adversaries who scheme against your independence and your Republic may be the representatives of a victory without precedent in the world. By force or by ruse, all citadels and all arsenals of our dear fatherland may have been taken; all of its armies may have been dispersed and all corners of the country may have been physically occupied. More distressing and more grievous than all these, those who hold and exercise the power within the country may have fallen into gross error, blunder, and even treason. These holders of power may have even united their personal interests with political ambitions of the invaders. The nation itself may have fallen into privation, and may have become exhausted and desolate.

You, the future sons and daughters of Turkey! Even under such circumstances and conditions, your duty is to redeem Turkish independence and the Republic! The strength you shall need exists in the noble blood flowing through your veins.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
From The Great Speech
20 October 1927

Mr. President, in the above speech, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk gave his heirs, the Turkish people, the right, indeed the duty, to defend the principles of Atatürkian democracy. Not Moderate Islamic democracy! Not Muslim democracy! Just democracy, Mr. President, the same kind of democracy as yours.

Yes, there is a force rising, Mr. President. There is a new Kemal rising, Mr. President. You should know this, Mr. President. And you should know him. On election day he will throw the treasonous AKP into the Mediterranean as the older Kemal did to the western occupiers. You and America would be wise to abandon your support for the current Islamo-fascist government and, for once, leave Turkey alone. Or you better know how to swim in deep, turbulent waters.

With my deep respect,

James C. Ryan, Ph.D.
Istanbul, Turkey

PS My previous three letters and a brief bio are attached.

CEM RYAN

[Turkish Translation Follows]

TÜRKÇE ÇEVİRİSİ

20 Temmuz 2010
Saygıdeğer Barack H. Obama
Amerika Birleşik Devletleri Başkanı
Beyaz Saray
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
ABD

Sayın Cumhurbaşkanı:

Gerçek hala marş halindedir Türkiye’de; şimdiki hükümetin yalan ve ihanetleri açıkça görülmektedir. Fakat adalet öldü. Siz batılılar öldürdünüz onu, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’ın AKP rejimini destekleyerek. Sayın Cumhurbaşkanı, geçenlerde Türkiye’deki sözde demokrasiyi “Müslüman Demokrasi” diye adlandırdınız. Din ve demokrasi beraber olmaz sayın Cumhurbaşkanı. Ve siz, herkesten önce, bunu bilmelisiniz. Mayıs 2009’da Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi’nde Mustafa Kemal Atatürk hakkında övgüyle konuştunuz. Yaptığınız gibi, Atatürk ve demokrasiden aynı anda bahsederken, her zaman üç sözcüğü vurgulamanız gerekir: LAİKLİK, LAİKLİK,LAİKLİK

Cumhurbaşkanlığı görevinize başladığınızdan bu yana, her altı ayda bir olmak üzere, bu size yazdığım dördüncü mektubum. Beyaz Saray’dan mektuplarımın alındıklarına dair, nezaketen de olsa, henüz en ufak bir bilgi almış değilim. Biliyorum, eğer mektuplar size yönelik tehdit içerselerdi, sizin gizli ajanlarınız gece yarısı kapımı çalarlardı. Ve gene biliyorum ki, 2008’de size seçim kampanyası için bağış gönderdiğimde, sadece elektronik postayla teşekkürler değil, aynı zamanda sizin merkezlerden uluslararası geçerli bir destekleyici olduğumu kanıtlamak amacıyla uluslar arası telefonlar aldım. Sizin yönetiminizin nezaket ve açıklık standartlarını tanımlayan bu mudur, Sayın Cumhurbaşkanı? Umarım değil, ama ben öyle düşünüyorum. Belki de mektuplarımı okudunuz ama onları aldığınızı kabul etmek size mahcubiyet verecektir çünkü AKP rejimini öyle sıkıca kucaklamışsınız ki! Öyle olsun, Sayın Cumhurbaşkanı! Fakat sıradan nezakete ne oldu?

Sözde “demokrasi” Türkiye’de kritik bir durumdadır. Bırakın Erdoğan’ın Gazze hakkındaki hazin davranışlarını. Bırakın İran, Sudan ve diğer gangster ister “İslamî” rejimlerle samimi ilişkilerini. Bunlar Türkler için son derece utanç verici fakat yapılmakta olan sivil darbeyle mukayese edildiğinde bunların hiç bir anlamı yok. Otuzlardaki Hitler gibi, yapılan her şey “demokrasi” kılıfı altındadır. Ve aynı kılıf altında hapishaneler Erdoğan’ın gaddar rejimine muhalefet eden solcularla dolup taşmaktadır. Hitler kirli işlerini yaptırmak için kahverengi gömlekli SA’larını kullanırken, Erdoğan da kendi AKP’li kadınlarının örtü ve türbanlarının arkasına saklanmaktadır.Türkiye’nin en yüksek [Anayasa] mahkemesi Erdoğan ve partisinin Türk milletine karşı laiklik karşıtı eylemlerin odağı olduğuna hükmetti. Buna Amerika’da vatan hainliği denir. Hitler gibi, Erdoğan da kendi hakim ve savcılarını mahkemelere doldurarak hukuk sistemini çökertti.

Özellikle bilmeniz gerekir ki Türk ordusu Ergenekon denilen bir komplo ile ciddi olarak zayıflatılmıştır. Şimdi Erdoğan sadece polis gücü ve jandarmaya değil, orduya da hakim olmuştur. Ve şimdi Türk başbakanının dışişlerinde her yere şiddetle saldırmak için eli tetikte olan ve ağzı kalabalık beceriksizliğinin de iyice farkındasınızdır. Türkiye marş halindedir, GERİYE DOĞRU, Osmanlı’nın şanlı-şöhretli yetersiz günlerine doğru. Bu sizin şanlı-şöhretli yetersiz CIA’nızın sayısız şanlı-şöhretli hain Türklerle birlikte başardıklarıdır.Erdoğan ve taifesi bunu İslamî Rönesans olarak savunuyorlar. Bu tamamiyle saçmalıktır.

Eğer size ilk mektubumla birlikte gönderdiğim kitapları okuduysanız bunu bilirsiniz. Tek “aydınlanma dönemi” tamamiyle bir Tek Adam, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’ten sayesindedir. Acınası Ekonomist dergisindeki yeni bir makalede “bir diger insafsız general” diye tanımlanmış ve karalanmış olan Atatürk, Türk Ulusal Bağımsızlık Savaşı’ndan (1919-1923) ortaya çıkmış olan enerjiyi Türkiye’yi Osmanlı’nın Ortaçağ zihniyetinden modern çağlara ve birçok bakımdan daha da ötesine taşımak için kullanmıştır. Mesela, 1930’da kadınlara seçme hakkını ve 1934’te de seçilme hakkını vermiştir, birçok Avrupa ülkesinden (Fransa, İtalya, Yunanistan, İsviçre) on yıllarca önce. İşte, tarihin en olağanüstü asker-devlet adamı-eğitimcisi tarafından gerçekleştirilmiş bu muhteşem başarı, Erdoğan ve onun İslamo-faşist çete arkadaşları tarafından ortadan kaldırılmaktadır. Ve kadının erkekten aşağıda olduğunu açıkça ilan eden bu aynı çete, garip şekilde giyinmiş eşlerini nezaket ve içtenlikle karşılanmak üzere Beyaz Saray’a getirirler.

Ah, Amerikan desteğiyle gelen dehşet! Karanlığın yüreği Türkiye’yi sarıyor, Sayın Cumhurbaşkanı: mahkeme kararı olmadan yapılan dinlemeler ve takipler, anayasaya aykırı tutuklamalar, insan haklarının tahribi, basın özgürlüğünün ahlaksızca ihlali, iktidardaki AKP’nin büyük miktarlardaki yolsuzluk ve hırsızlıkları, ve Türk ordusunun yıpratılması. Ekonomist dergisinin Atatürk’ü aşağılamak hakkını kendinde görmesi sürpriz değil. Aferin, siz tüm batılılara. Kötü iş, Sayın Cumhurbaşkanı.

Fakat yükselen bir güç var Sayın Cumhurbaşkanı. Geçen yedi yılda AKP’nin onlara vermeye çalıştığı çöpü almayı reddedecek daha çok, bir çok Türk var. Ve bu güç Kemal Atatürk’ün sözlerinden enerji alıyor. Onları bilmiyor ya da hatırlamıyor olabilirsiniz, Sayın Cumhurbaşkanı, fakat onlara iyice dikkat etmelisiniz. Daha önceki mektuplarımda size söylemiş olduğum gibi, size tekrar hatırlatıyorum. Hesap günü geliyor. Gün yakındır. Atatürk’ün sözlerini okuyun, bugünkü Türkiye’yi tanımlıyorlar:

Ey Türk Gençliği!

Birinci vazifen, Türk istikllini, Türk Cumhuriyetini, ilelebet, muhafaza ve müdafaa etmektir. Mevcudiyetinin ve istikbalinin yegane temeli budur.

Bu temel, senin, en kıymetli hazinendir. İstikbalde dahi, seni, bu hazineden mahrum etmek isteyecek, dahili ve harici, bedhahların olacaktır. Bir gün, istiklal ve Cumhuriyeti müdafaa mecburiyetine düşersen, vazifeye atılmak için, içinde bulunacağın vaziyetin imkan ve şeraitini düşünmeyeceksin! Bu imkan ve şerait, çok namüsait bir mahiyette tezahür edebilir. İstiklal ve Cumhuriyetine kastedecek düşmanlar, bütün dünyada emsali görülmemiş bir galibiyetin mümessili olabilirler. Cebren ve hile ile aziz vatanın kaleleri zaptedilmiş, bütün tersanelerine girilmiş, bütün orduları dağıtılmış ve memleketin her köşesi bilfiil işgal edilmiş olabilir. Bütün bu şeraitten daha elim ve daha vahim olmak üzere, memleketin dahilinde iktidara sahip olanlar gaflet, dalalet ve hatta hıyanet içinde bulunabilirler. Hatta bu iktidar sahipleri şahsi menfaatlerini, müstevlilerin siyasi emelleriyle tevhit edebilirler. Millet, fakr ü zaruret içinde harap ve bitap düşmüş olabilir.

Ey Türk istikbalinin evladı! İşte, bu ahval ve şerait içinde dahi vazifen, Türk İstiklal ve Cumhuriyetini kurtarmaktır. Muhtaç olduğun kudret, damarlarındaki asil kanda mevcuttur.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Nutuk’tan
20 Ekim 1927

Sayın Cumhurbaşkanı, yukarıdaki söylevde Mustafa Kemal Atatürk varislerine, Türk Milletine, Atatürk demokrasisinin ilkelerini savunma hakkını, doğrusu görevini vermiştir. Ilımlı İslam demokrasisinin değil! Müslüman demokrasi değil! Sadece demokrasi, Sayın Cumhurbaşkanı, sizin demokrasinizle aynı olan.

Evet, bir güç yükseliyor, Sayın Cumhurbaşkanı. Yeni bir Kemal yükseliyor, Sayın Cumhurbaşkanı. Bunu bilmelisiniz, sayın Cumhurbaşkanı. Ve O’nu tanımalısınız. Seçim günü hain AKP’yi Akdenize dökecektir, aynı Gazi Mustafa Kemal’in batılı işgalcilere yaptığı gibi. Sizin ve Amerika’nın şimdiki İslamo-faşist hükümeti desteklemeyi bırakmanız akıllıca olur, bir kez olsun, Türkiye’yi rahat bırakın. Ya da derin sularda, çalkantılı sularda yüzmesini bilseniz iyi olur!

Derin saygılarımla,

James C. Ryan, Ph.D.
İstanbul, Türkiye

Not: önceki üç mektubum ve kısa bir öz geçmişim ilişiktedir.

Published in Turkish by Aydınlık Dergisi
1 Ağustos 2010
AMERİKALI BARIŞ GÖNÜLLÜSÜ OBAMA’YI UYARDI
Hesap günü geliyor, AKP’yi destekleme artık!

CEM RYAN

August 9, 2010
Review of Stephen Kinzer’s “Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future”

By John Lancaster

By Stephen Kinzer

Times. 274 pp. $26

For the title of his new book, Stephen Kinzer borrows the latest diplomatic fad word — “reset” — in calling for a makeover of U.S. policy in the Middle East. I know what you’re thinking: Oh no. Not another book on — fill in the blank (American missteps in Iraq, the Israel lobby, Saudi oil politics, etc.). While Kinzer touches on several such themes, his main thesis is more provocative: The path to a stable Middle East runs not through Israel and traditional Arab allies but through Turkey and Iran. Therein lie the book’s strengths as well as its main weakness.

First, its strengths: A former foreign correspondent for the New York Times, Kinzer argues persuasively that despite their very different governments — one friendly and free, the other hostile and theocratic — both Turkey and Iran are host to vibrant democratic traditions that make them natural long-term partners of the United States. He deftly interweaves the stories of the Iranian and Turkish democracy movements, whose roots are deeper than most Americans realize.

For example, Kinzer shows how recent anti-government protests in Iran are part of a continuum that dates at least to 1906, when popular fury toward a decadent monarchy led to the creation of Iran’s first parliament. Of particular interest is the story of Howard Baskerville, a young Princeton graduate from Nebraska who was teaching in Tabriz when the ancient city was besieged by royalist forces seeking to crush the new democracy. Baskerville sided with the democrats and died while leading schoolboys into battle in 1909. “Today Howard Baskerville is an honored figure in Iran,” Kinzer writes. “Schools and streets have been named after him. His bust, cast in bronze,” holds a place of honor in Tabriz. Who knew?

The account is typical of Kinzer’s lively, character-driven approach to history. Mustafa Kemal — also known as Ataturk, the charismatic army officer who is regarded as the founder of modern Turkey — is depicted as an alcoholic and libertine whose conquests included a teenage Zsa Zsa Gabor, or so she later claimed. More substantively, Kinzer describes a ruler so bent on purging the Turkish state of religious influence that he ordered civil servants to shed their traditional fezzes in favor of Western-style bowler hats. In that and other ways, Kemal had much in common with Reza Shah Pahlavi, the rough-hewn soldier who seized power in Iran in 1921. Despite their autocratic styles, both rulers were relentless modernizers who promoted education and women’s rights — and in doing so, Kinzer argues, helped create the conditions that allowed democratic ideals to germinate. The two countries “developed national identities shaped by the Enlightenment as well as Islam,” Kinzer writes. “This was a new synthesis. It invigorated Turkey and Iran and set them starkly apart from the countries around them.”

After decades of instability and military rule, Turkey, a NATO member, has capitalized on its democratic potential and has even moved haltingly toward membership in the European Union. For that, Kinzer assigns much credit to Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, whose Islamist leanings belie the view that Islam and democracy are incompatible. “Democracy has become Turkey’s only alternative,” Kinzer writes. “Even pious Muslims recognize, accept, and celebrate this.”

Iran, of course, is another story. That is at least partly the fault of the United States, whose role in ousting the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 forms an important part of Kinzer’s narrative (and the focus of one of his previous books). The coup restored the Pahlavi dynasty. It also set the stage for the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the decades of U.S.-Iranian enmity that have followed. But Kinzer still finds reasons for hope. Even now, he writes, “Iran is the only Muslim country in the world where most people are reliably pro-American. This pro-American sentiment in Iran is a priceless strategic asset for the United States.”

Kinzer’s take on Iran and Turkey is fresh and well-informed, but he stumbles when he plays policymaker. His plea for a more conciliatory approach to Iran sounds a bit fanciful at a time of rising tensions over its nuclear program. And besides, haven’t we tried that already? Nor is there anything particularly new about Kinzer’s call for a recalibration of U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia and Israel. For example, he is hardly the first to urge a tougher approach to Israel, a chorus that has only grown louder since Israel’s disastrous commando raid on a flotilla trying to breach its naval blockade of Gaza in May. In Kinzer’s view, it’s time for the Obama administration to “impose” a peace settlement on Israel and the Palestinians, but he doesn’t explain quite how it should do this, other than presiding over “a coercive version of the smoke-filled room.” After the riches of the book’s first half, I found myself wishing that Kinzer had dispensed with the think-tank musings (and bullet points) and stuck to his strengths as a journalist and historian.

John Lancaster is a former Middle East correspondent for The Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/09/AR2010070902109.html, July 11, 2010

July 11, 2010
FIRST RESPONCE TO TURKISH FORUM FROM FETULLAH’S REPORTERS

Is Fethullah Gulen a dangerous Islamist or a moderate visionary?

His critics perceive Gülen’s benign face as a mask — one disguising an Islamist wolf in a moderate sheep’s clothing. But who is Fethullah Gulen, really?

For more than a decade, one of the world’s most influential and controversial Muslim leaders has been convalescing on 26 acres in the Pocono Mountains.

In Ross Township — not far from the Blue Ridge flea market, a giant corn maze dubbed Mazezilla and a go-kart speedway — you will find a small metal sign bearing the name of the Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center.

It is here that Fethullah Gülen, 68, lives.

Gülen is an ailing Turkish cleric whose vision of an Islam that embraces science, education and interfaith dialogue has earned him millions of followers — and the suspicion of many in Turkey’s secular establishment.

To his supporters, Gülen is the face of a more contemporary and tolerant Islam.

But his critics perceive Gülen’s benign face as a mask — one disguising an Islamist wolf in a moderate sheep’s clothing.

“To his detractors,” wrote Piotr Zalewski, a journalist who lives in Turkey, “he is the second coming of Ayatollah Khomeini, his avowedly peaceful movement hiding a nefarious secret agenda to transform secular Turkey into another Iran.”

But does Gülen truly pose a threat to national security? And what is so prominent a figure — he was named one of the most influential Muslims alive by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center and the world’s leading public intellectual by the readers of Foreign Policy magazine — doing in northeastern Pennsylvania?

‘Most Dangerous Islamist?’

Gülen’s idyll in the obscurity of the Poconos was shaken by a recent online broadside.

Bearing the headline, “Exclusive: World’s ‘Most Dangerous Islamist’ Alive, Well, and Living in Pennsylvania,” the article alleged several incendiary details about Gülen.

Gülen, warned the writer, Paul Williams, lived in an “Islamic armed fortress” in Saylorsburg, had amassed billions of dollars to foment dissent and topple governments and founded madrasahs worldwide to lay the groundwork for “the Islamization of the world.”

The article, on the website Family Security Matters and on Williams’ blog, The Last Crusade, flew around the Internet, alternately baffling and shocking the center’s neighbors and local officials.

Though it recycled several longstanding controversies about Gülen, many of its fresher claims are false.

For example, the article described visits from the FBI. The bureau had been there, but several residents of the center said it was many years ago, during Gülen’s immigration dispute (after a lawsuit, a federal judge granted Gülen status as an “alien of exceptional ability”). The FBI has not been there in years, according to Special Agent J.J. Klaver.

Williams also quoted unnamed neighbors and business owners complaining of “the incessant sounds of gunfire — including the rat-tat-tat of fully automatic weapons — coming from the compound and the low flying helicopter that circles the area in search of all intruders.”

None of the neighbors with whom the Pocono Record spoke said they had ever heard or seen what Williams described.

Instead, they said they’d shared picnics with the center’s residents, and had received visits from them after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Gülenists had knocked on their doors to apologize for what had been inflicted on innocents in the name of Islam.

“You couldn’t meet a nicer bunch of people,” said Howard Beers Jr., a Ross Township supervisor who lives next door and enters the property six or seven days a week, often unannounced and not through the front gate, to do construction work.

“If anyone would walk in on something, it would be me,” Beers said. “As long as I have ever been there, I have never, ever, seen a gun or heard a shot. All this stuff is totally, totally unfounded.”

Efforts to reach Williams through the Web site and his blog were unsuccessful.

A recent visit to Golden Generation revealed tranquil surroundings — a retreat, not a compound — landscaped with old-growth trees, a pond, basketball court, soccer field and several residences under construction.

Middle-aged, mild-mannered, mustached men in modern dress strolled on the grounds, apart from groups of children and hijab-wearing women.

They bore no weapons — just ornately designed plates and boxes of Turkish desserts, which they offered to American visitors.

“We are the very opposite of what that man says,” said Bekir Aksoy, president of the center.

And yet, Gülen is still seen by some as a threat to the established order of the Muslim world. But it is not quite for the reasons Williams described.

To understand why, the reclusive cleric must be placed in the context of the world’s 1 billion Muslims.

A threat to orthodoxy

“The West looks at Islam and says it’s a monolith,” said Akbar Ahmed, a professor at American University’s School of International Service and author of the book, “Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam,” who is supportive of Gülenism.

But like all large groups of people, Muslims can hold disparate beliefs, observe their faith to different degrees, and embody varying cross-currents and complexities.

In broad terms, a large number of Muslims belong to the literalist camp. It is typified by the Wahhabi sect of the religion and hard-core Islamic governments like Saudi Arabia’s, which recoil from the influence of the West and see the Koran, the Muslim holy book, as the literal truth.

At the other end of the spectrum are secular Muslims, such as the Turkish government, who are suspicious of Islam, and see it as a force to be subordinated to the state or kept to the confines of one’s home.

Between these two poles are other groups, including a small cluster called Sufis, out of whose mystical tradition Gülen arises.

The Gülenist interpretation of Islam publicly preaches the virtues of being outward looking, peaceful and respectful of religious diversity. If Gülenists are known for anything, it is for their abiding faith in inter-religious dialogue.

“The Gülen Institute rigorously and, I think very rightly, advocates prayer and interfaith dialogue and the role that they can play in helping ease tensions between peoples in our very complicated world,” James Baker, the former secretary of state, said to a Houston gathering of the institute in 2008.

They also promote engagement in science and education. While their work has a political aspect — in the sense that many Gülenists are concerned with social justice and communal responsibility — they profess to remain divorced from the hurly-burly of partisan politics.

“Power’s dominance is transitory; while the dominance of truth and justice is eternal,” Gülen wrote. “Sincere politicians should align themselves and their policies with truth and justice.”

Gülenism disturbs both poles of the Islamic spectrum — the secular and the fundamentalist.

“Modern Turkey is self-consciously secular,” said Ahmed. “To them, anyone talking about religion, like Gülen, and appearing to be an attractive and alternative paradigm would be a threat. He would seem to undermine secularism.”

Ahmed put this threat in starker terms when describing Gülen’s effect on the literalist wing of Islam.

“If the Taliban had Gülen and George W. Bush in the same room, they’d go for Gülen first,” said Ahmed. “He’d change their society.”

David Cuthell, executive director of the Institute of Turkish Studies at Georgetown University, went further, saying Gülen was trying to reconcile both poles of thought.

“If there’s going to be a Reformation in Islam,” Cuthell said, “this is where it’s going to be coming from.”

The road to Saylorsburg

Gülen’s popularity in Turkey grew over several decades, through the 1990s. He harnessed the tools of mass communication — television, radio, and now, the Internet — to spread his message of education and engagement, often to well-educated elites, said Muhammed Çetin, a Gülenist, author and sociologist who lives in Wind Gap.

“He was sending people to learn,” Çetin said, “not to be trapped by terrorists and limited views.”

Though his influence grew — he is thought to have more than 5 million followers — television proved to be his undoing. Gülen was quoted as urging his followers to weave themselves into the fabric of the power structure.

“Every method and path is acceptable (including) lying to people,” he allegedly said. Gülen critics have cited these words as evidence that he is orchestrating a shadow conspiracy to seize control and elevate religion.

Gülen has said the footage was manipulated and that he has no political aspirations.

Turkey accused Gülen of attempting to undermine the secular regime. His supporters described it as a trumped-up effort to discredit him. The case has never been proven or disproven.

Tensions mounted. The Welfare Party, which, like Gülen, was pro-religious, held power. But it clashed with Turkey’s military and was dissolved in 1998.

“Gülen felt like if he stuck around he’d end up in jail,” said Cuthell of the Institute of Turkish Studies.

At around the same time, Gülen was in Minnesota being treated for ill health. He suffers from diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, said Aksoy, president of Golden Generation. Recently, Gülen’s lungs have begun to fill with fluid.

Golden Generation had already been established in Saylorsburg on the grounds of a former summer camp. Kemal Ozgur, a microbiologist and Gülenist, met Gülen in Minnesota and invited him to stay in Pennsylvania. The cleric has remained there ever since.

Gülen seldom speaks publicly or appears outside his room. He will leave only to visit a group room in a chalet in the center, where he leads prayers five times daily.

“He doesn’t want to be in the limelight, and Pennsylvania works for him quite well,” said Cuthell.

But Gülen’s continued influence is reflected in a decentralized global network of schools, newspapers and think tanks that are supportive of his views.

Those who run the center refer to Gülen as their guest, and say the entrance is monitored to keep Gülen from being flooded by visiting Turks.

“He liked it so much, he never left,” Aksoy said. “It was an accident of history that he came here.”

By Dan Berrett, Pocono Record Writer

April 19, 2010