Erdogan vows victory over ‘imperialists’
These competing forces were on full display as Erdogan moved from honoring Turkey’s past to celebrating his own government’s achievements while he was prime minister and president
Daily TribuneThese competing forces were on full display as Erdogan moved from honoring Turkey’s past to celebrating his own government’s achievements while he was prime minister and president
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to stand up to "imperialist" forces as he led Turkish centenary celebrations in the shadow of Israel's escalating war with Hamas militants in Gaza.
Erdogan took center stage during day-long events that both honored the republic's secular founder and played up the achievement of his Islamic-rooted party that has run Turkey since 2002.
"Our country is in safe hands, you may rest in peace," Erdogan said after laying a wreath at the mausoleum of military commander and statesman Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
"We will be successful and victorious. No imperialist power can prevent this," Erdogan added in an evening address in Istanbul.
Ataturk is lionized across Turkish society for driving out invading forces and building a brand-new nation out of the fallen Ottoman Empire's ruins in the wake of World War I.
He formed as a Westward-facing nation that stripped religion from its state institutions and tried to forge a modern new identity out of its myriad ethnic groups.
It eventually became a proud member of the US-led NATO defense alliance and a beacon of democratic hopes in the Middle East.
"We are Ataturk's daughters, we are the children of the republic," pensioner Nerguzel Asik said after watching a military parade in Istanbul.
"We feel 'Turkishness' in every way," student Selin Gunes agreed.
But Ataturk's social and geopolitical transformation of the overwhelmingly Muslim nation created divisions that weigh on Turkish politics to this day.
Erdogan tapped into these as he led his conservative Justice and Development Party to power over the leftist Republican People's Party formed by Ataturk.
WITH AFP
