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To: Destro

Does Turkey seem to be slowly sliding down into Islamic fundamentalism?


13 posted on 09/06/2004 8:13:16 PM PDT by valkyrieanne
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To: valkyrieanne
No and it is complicated. In this case it is Nationalist Turks who are not quite fundamentalists. The Turks were ruled by a system that resembles Saddam's Iraq Baath party. All ethnicities had to deny being anything but Turkish. Since Turkey was Muslim (but an Islam that serves the nationalist state) that meant Christians were hard pressed - not because it was an issue of them being Christian but of not being part of the official religion of state.

That is why the Turks went after their minorities in the start of the 20th century like the Greeks and Armenians. Because they could not be assimilated no so much so that they were Christians, IMHO.

Turkey is an artifical nation like Iraq. It is made up of dozens of nationalities. The only way Ataturk the modern founder of secular Turkey could for a state was to abolish all differences and force everyone to call themselves Turks and adopt the state religion of Islam. If they could not and would not they were seen as a threat to be removed. Turks inner fear is that one day Turkey will be broken up when Turks start asserting their true banned ethnicity and stop calling themselves the generic "Turk".

14 posted on 09/06/2004 8:38:21 PM PDT by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorism by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)
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To: valkyrieanne

Religious authorities nearly always find a functional role in nationalistic movements, especially in the balkans and the middle east. This is true no matter what the religion.

Some heads of religion - namely the Greek orthodox and the Armenian orthodox played an active part in the planning and execution of numerous revolts during the 18th and 19th century, while enjoying the full protection of the Ottoman state. Other, sunni and shiite leaning bodies did similar deeds working for the Persians or Arabs.

The Muslim sects worked especially hard to bring about a fundamentalist regime in Turkey, during the aftermath of the first world war.

As a result, all independent Muslim religious sects were banned and all leadership of religion was brought under the umbrella of the law at the founding of the republic. As a result, the Christian leadership has been almost inexistent politically, as have the Muslim indepentent sects.

Yet, just like many here in the US still are under the influence of the truths and lies spread about the Turks during the four previous centuries and - as you can see in these posts - fear a return to (quasi) religious rule there, many nationalists in Turkey fear that the intrigue of the Orthodox denominations will return based on centuries of background.

And as you read in even these posts, there are those who openly announce their desire for the partition of Turkey. The result is that the good Patriarch must pay for the sins of others, lambasted by those who cannot know better, due to their own limitations.


16 posted on 09/07/2004 5:03:28 AM PDT by a_Turk (Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, Justice, Comitas, Firmitas, Gravitas, Humanitas, Industria..)
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