Christopher Hitchens: Turkish military is no longer the guardian of secularism
Christopher Hitchens – Aug 3, 2011
To read of the stunning news, of the almost-overnight liquidation of Turkey’s Ataturkist or secularist military caste, and to try to do so from the standpoint of a seriously secular Turk, is to have a small share in the sense of acute national vertigo that must have accompanied the proclamation of a new system in the second two decades of the 20th century.
For example, today’s vice-president of Kemal Ataturk’s historical political party, the Republican People’s Party or RPP, was quoted last Friday as speaking of “a second Turkish republic” with a heavy heart “in the seaside city of Cannkkale,” and not long after, it seemed that some high-ranking Turkish officers would now be arrested rather than, as previously reported, having had their resignations accepted. That famous seaside peninsula, as The New York Times did not emphasize, also bears the name of Gallipoli. It is the place where Gen. Mustafa Kemal inflicted the most bloody and tragic defeat on British imperial forces in 1915-16, while also convincing Rupert Murdoch’s cocky colonial ancestors that their brave Aussie forebears had been used as cannon fodder by teak-headed British toffs. The apple of the notorious 1981 Mel Gibson movie did not roll very far from the tree. Within a few years of Gallipoli, the same Turkish general had, in fact, reversed the local verdict of the 1914-18 war, and expelled Greek, French, and British forces from Anatolia.
Mere HER i National Post. Kan også læses her i Slate.
Turkey’s Islamic Revolution
Benny Morris | August 1, 2011
The Turkish Islamists, who took control of the country after democratic elections in 2002, are well on their way to completing a revolution which will radically affect the Middle Eastern balance of power and perhaps, more generally, the international arena (West versus Islamic East), practically without protest or opposition. This weekend, they ticked another important “V” in their gradual desecularization of the country with the mass resignation of the country’s top military brass and their immediate replacement by Islamist-friendly generals.
The dramatic resignations of the chief of staff and the heads of the army, air force and navy were prompted by the ongoing trial of about 200 military officers for conspiring against the regime. Most observers regard the charges as trumped up. But their purport was clear: To cow the army and the country’s secular, educated middle classes. As it emerges, the trials served to defang the army in advance of the takeover of the high command.
Mere HER i The National Interest. Tyrkiet er en sikkerhedsrisiko. Men det vidste vi jo godt:
Turkey and the risks to EU security
Jeff Taylor – August 3rd, 2011
Monday a Home Affairs select committee report said that Turkey must bolster its border controls before it should be allowed to join the European Union.
The Committee said that thousands of migrants were already entering the EU using Turkey as an illegal conduit to get into Greece. Many of these migrants said the committee have Britain in mind as their destination.
Mere HER hos The Economic Voice.





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