A Year in the Near East

A professor at Gazi University, Attila Yayla, has been ‘hauled to the dock‘ for his criticism of the founder, Atatürk. He presented a speech last week in İzmir in which he reportedly stated that the era of Mustafa Kemal was ‘a period of regression, not progress’. The article cited actually gives a good insight into the condition of freedom of speech in Turkey and the degree to which Turks hold respect for their ‘Exalted Leader’.

Sometimes I wonder if my Turkish foreign policy professor will share the same fate as Yayla. He does not question Atatürk so flagrantly, but nonetheless encourages (read: forces) the students to think critically about the way they have been socialized by the state dogma. He likes us foreigners because apparently we are not ‘walking dogmas’.