A nation confused

The BBC's Johnny Dymond describes the personality cult of Kemal Atatürk in modern Turkey, and how it defines the nation:

There is a ludicrous side to the cult. Last year a man took a bust of Atatürk hostage, holding a gun to its head, to protest about unemployment. And, this being Turkey, there is a dark side to the cult too: it is a criminal offence to insult Atatürk or to desecrate his image, punishable by up to five years in prison. Journalist Hakan Albayrak, a columnist for the newspaper Millli Gazete, is serving a 15-month prison term for suggesting that Atatürk was buried without the traditional Muslim prayer for the dead.

| Posted by Wilson at 12:56 Central | TrackBack
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