[Newsbot]

<strong>Filibuster Cartoon</strong>
<strong>Title: </strong> <a href="http://www.filibustercartoons.com/archive.php?id=20070901" target="_blank">No one likes Gul</a> (click to view)
<strong>Date: </strong> September 01, 2007

Abdullah Gul was sworn in as President of Turkey this week. Mr. Gul has a history of Islamism in his past, and though he now praises the value of separation of church and state, he remains quite openly religious and socially conservative in his politics. These facts prompted a lot of controversy prior to his election. Secularism is taken very seriously in Turkey, and the country\'s elites are always quick to crush perceived threats. <br> <br>Historically, the chief crushers have been the armed forces, who have occasionally launched military coups to depose governments they deem to be overly Islamist in character. That sort of thing probably won\'t happen again anytime soon- Turkey is now trying to get into the EU and a coup would send their efforts back decades- but the army has still made its displeasure with Mr. Gul known. <br> <br>Unlike in my cartoon, the senior generals of the armed forces actually boycotted Mr. Gul\'s swearing in, and in a recent military parade they refused to salute him. The chief of the army even vaguely spoke of \"centers of evil\" threating the secularism of the republic. So coup or not, Gul still has a hard time ahead of him.

[sasquatch2]

It would seem this Gul fellow is not much of a problem....he has been effectively neutralized.

In Turkish politics he has been given notice. Despite Turkey's intent to join the EU....Turkey's real powerful, ruling elite have secularism as a priority.

[EmperorLiam]

I don't think secularism is the priority, I think worship of 'modern' Turkeys creator Ataboyturk is whats going on, hes like Chinas Mao, but for Turkeys.

[Prestwick]

Sorry but you just can't compare Ataturk to a totally scheming, power mad murderering nutter like Mao. You simply can't. The man brought Turkey out of the dark ages, he modernised education in Turkey, ushered in a westernised alphabet, and by making the nation secular via the constitution ensured freedom of expression regardless of whether you are a Muslim, a Christian or a Jew. His decrees on liberalising what women could wear, where they could work, getting the vote sent shockwaves through a traditionally (and still) heavily conservative Islamic world.

When it came to alcohol, Ataturk basically said "where in the Koran does it say clearly "thou shalt not drink!"...exactly, it doesn't" and authorised production of alcohol in Turkey for the first time in almost 600 years. The man did something which nobody has been able to do in the Islamic world since: bring the religion out of the middle ages.

It is very difficult to avoid Ataturk in Turkey because, lets face it, he was the guy who built modern day Turkey. He is what made it what it is today.

And as for Gul, he'll pay lip service to secularism if he knows what is good for him. In any case he cannot do much damage as President and he was quite a good foreign minister so he isn't all bad.