[harpseal]

Much has been said of the secular regime of Turkey being the only democratic nation with a majority Muslim population. This thread standing on its own calls many of the assumptions about Turkey into question.

Thanks for posting this as its own thread.

Stay well - stay safe - stay armed - Yorktown

[John H K]

The fact that such as large Christian community existed and even thrived, to a degree, for hundreds and hundreds of years under an Islamic state, the Ottoman Empire, calls many FReepers assumptions about Islam into question.

The killings and expulsions really didn't kick into high gear until the modern, secular, Turkish state was created after WWI. And it's really more ethnic than religious...more anti-Greek than anti-Christian.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the Greeks tried to take advantage of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI by invading and trying to take over the entire Western half of Asiatic Turkey..not just the part in Europe. There were horrible mass atrocities committed by BOTH sides in that war. Ataturk finally rebuilt the Turkish military and drove the Greeks out.

Donning flame-retardant suit against the FR pro-Greek contingent now :-) I don't particularly have a bias, just pointing out some salient facts. I'm neither Turkish nor a Muslim. :-)

[mikeIII]

One of the issues the EU had with Turkey's entry into the union was its suppression of religios freedoms - including Islam! They have a very precarious balancing act between secularism and Islam as the main religion.