Friday, May 23, 2008

The cult of Ataturk?

UK's foreign minister writes on blog;

The founder of the Turkish Republic Kemal Attaturk dominates every public building. His mausoleum which I visited yesterday is monumental. But he also said: "culture is the foundation of the Turkish Republic". Not a bad place to start.


I wonder whether present generation of Turks will agree with Ataturk.

2 comments:

kerokan said...

It's Ataturk, not Attaturk. And yes, most Turks would agree with him.
And here "culture" means "national culture/traditions etc", not "high culture". Nationalists do not care all that much about "enlightenment".

Marshall Jevons said...

OK. I've corrected the spelling of Ataturk- but you need to tell that to British foreign minister as well.