Cyprus-Forum.com

[Piratis]

Please dont forget that Turkey's neighbours are Iran, Syria, Iraq ....

Well, Turkey might compare adequately with Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia etc. Is that satisfactory for you? Your aim is to be better than Iraq?

You need some defence mechanisms in Turkey to protect secularity and democracy.

Why you need this mechanism in Turkey and not in lets say in Sweden? Is it because Turks are by nature not democrats and democracy needs to be forced in Turkey? (forced democracy ... sounds strange to me)

[MicAtCyp]

Some peopele here criticised KEMALISM that it is totatliter and not democratic and humanistic.

KEMALISM is the ultimate model to bring democracy and modernity to any muslim country.

Metecyp, Insan,

Still have doubts? Do you need more evidence?One cannot even refer to HIM wiithout using capital letters....

It reminds me the rhetoric back when USSR was such a humanistic, democracy.

[metecyp]

Still have doubts? Do you need more evidence?One cannot even refer to HIM wiithout using capital letters....

MicAtCyp, "Kemalism" has many meanings in Turkey and it's used differently by different people in Turkey. For me, Kemalism means modernity...Ataturk created a new modern, democratic republic out of an Islamic empire. Democracy was introduced, women's rights were introduced, Latin alphabet was introduced...You might argue that these were not successful and Turkey is still not European but that's not the point. The point is Ataturk had the vision of a European Turkey back in 1920s and Turkey stands as the only predominantly Muslim EU candidate country.

On the other hand, there are other "Kemalists" who interprets Ataturk's ideals differently and usually use violence. I call these "fake Kemalists" because they don't really understand what Ataturk stands for in my opinion. I think that's what comes into your mind (and Kifea's mind) when you talk of Kemalism but the existance of such people does not make Ataturk and his ideals less valuable.

You talked about communism. Isn't it a nice idea to have a state where every citizen gets exactly same education, exactly same healthcare, exactly same opportunities? Doesn't it bother you that some people are born rich and they go to best schools and they buy expensive cars while other people starve just because their parents are poor? So, in essence, isn't the idea of communism nice? Does one failed application of communism (USSR) make communism bad??

[garbitsch]

Ah still can't believe you waste your time by defining Kemalism to the walls mete. They only say what is taught to them. It's something like "the world is round" to them. If they want to think Turkey is a fascist state, let them to do so. What they cannot explain is, how comes Greece and Cyprus do not veto Turkey's, i.e. a fascist country like Nazi Germany, accession to EU. EU must be a crap since it granted candidacy to a fascist country and the accession talks with this fascist state will start in November.

[detailer]

I used KEMALISM because someone here refered to it with big letters so I continued that. I like K. Ataturk not because anyone forces me to that.

I like his ambition to convert the ruins of Ottoman empire to a modern and democratic country.

I like the fact that still many Turkish people feel him in their heart although the leaders of his time, Hitler or Stalin are the symbol of hatred for their own people now.

I like the fact that he is still the symbol for many islamic nations to change to democratic countries

But I can see the point of yours. You are just taught that we are under a totaliter regime. Then whenever we say something you dont like, you under-value it by saying "Anyway this guy is under a fascist regime so his views are not important"...

By the way, I am still waiting the answer... Which countries paliaments collected signatures to prevent Milosevic going to international court?

Which countries president had business connection with him?