Thousands of nationalist Turks marched in the capital, vowing to defend the secular regime against radical Islamic influences and urging the government not to make too many concessions in order to gain EU membership.
Some 12,000 people from more than 100 pro-secular associations waved Turkish flags on Saturday as they marched to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.
Turkey is predominantly Muslim but is governed by strict secular laws that separate religion and state. Many fear that if left unchecked, Islamic fundamentalism will lead to a theocracy like that in Iran.
Retired General Sener Eruygur, president of the Ataturk Thought Association and former commander of Turkey's paramilitary forces, warned against purported plans by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the Islamic-rooted ruling party to run for president -- a largely ceremonial post, but a symbol of secularism in Turkey.
Staunchly secular Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer will retire in May, and the parliament -- dominated by Erdogan's legislators -- will choose the new president.
Since taking power in 2002, Erdogan has stoked secularist concerns by speaking out against restrictions on wearing Islamic-style headscarfs in government offices and schools and supporting religious schools. He also tried to criminalize adultery before being forced to back down under intense EU pressure, and some party-run municipalities have taken steps to ban alcohol.
A former Constitutional Court judge, Sezer has vetoed a record number of laws he ruled violated the secular Constitution and has blocked government efforts to appoint hundreds of reportedly Islamic-oriented candidates to important civil service positions.
"The gains of the republic were being rolled back one by one," Senal Sarihan, president of the Republican Women's Association, said in a speech during Saturday's rally. "Today is the day to rise up for the Republic."
Erdogan's government denies it has an Islamic agenda. It has also shown a commitment to joining the EU by enacting sweeping reforms that allowed the country to start membership talks last year -- a move greatly welcomed by the US.
Protesters rallied on Saturday, however, against EU demands to grant greater rights to Kurds and other minorities. Turkey is fighting a separatist Kurdish guerrilla group in a war that has killed more than 37,000 people since 1984, and many Turks regard granting more rights to Kurds as a concession to the rebels.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing