A new President for Turkey?

A. Gul for President. That will be an earthquake for Turkey. Personally, I don't think that he is a bad choice. Unfortunately, his wife is wearing not a headscarf, but is covered in a comical way, which will not attribute to Turkish modern image.

On the other side, Turkey claimed to be secular for decades, but was not; it suppressed its Muslim religion and as a result, National-islamists harmed Turkey more than this government over the past five years. Its secularism was a religion by itself.

Turkey needs more publicity, not propaganda

This article is published in the Turkish Daily News of April 24, 2007

If Turkey wants to have a peaceful, stable and tolerant image in the world through a pluralistic society, which it claims to be, Turkish society must be based upon freedom of speech, freedom in the economical sense and equality in social life. And the flow of information must be as free as a bird.
Turkey is to some (too) far right wing European politicians what garlic is to vampires: the mere mention of it sends them into convulsions. They try to associate Turkey in the public opinion with bully talkers, ultra nationalism and intolerance against other faiths. It is simple for them: Turkey, as a country, threatens, suppresses and denies “others.” Yes, Turkey is also responsible for this, as it has been sending out decades of ambivalent power play with words like, “The world is watching us at each step we take,” or “Let us do it our way.”

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