Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who was responsible for creating the first Republic of a formerly Moslem nation, is turning in his grave. On 29 October 1923, the Republic of Turkey arose from the ashes of The Ottoman Empire and Atatürk was unanimously elected as its first President.
The office of the Sultan was abolished in November 1922, the caliph was abolished in March 1924, and the Republic of Turkey became a truly secular democratic nation.
Since the founding of the Republic, the Turkish military has been charged with maintaining the secular democracy created by Ataturk, intervening when it deemed necessary to keep religion out of politics, but fairly recent developments are threatening the secular nature of the Republic, as reported in this piece from The Washington Post.
Paul Mirengoff of Powerline posted the below piece on the recent ominous (for us) developments in Turkey. Should Turkey become an Islamic Republic, it could pose serious problems for not only the U.S. but for the entire Western world.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/05/026270.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+powerlineblog%2Flivefeed+%28Power+Line%29
A personal note: In September 2008, I was returning home from the Turkish Naval Base at Aksaz. While awaiting my flight at the Istanbul airport, I engaged in conversation with a Turkish woman who had just retired after teaching English at one of the universities there for 25 years. Since I was returning from a teaching assignment (English) on a U. S. Navy ship, we talked about our mutual occupations for awhile, but the conversation turned quickly to the political situation in Turkey. Approximately 50 former generals and admirals had been arrested on suspicion of planning a coup against the Islamic leaning government. She was very concerned about the future of her country and allowed how it had become impossible for a man to advance professionally if his wife did not observe Islamic dress codes. She said she was on her way to visit a sister in the United States, and that as soon as possible after returning home she would finalize plans to leave her country for good. She was that sure that Sharia law was coming, and there was no way she was going to allow herself to be subjugated to its restraints.
