Welfare Party (Turkey) Quotes
He did not originate this line. It came from a Turkish religious poet. As a young politician, He was advocating a Muslim government. But Turkey is the only majority Muslim country whose Constitution requires a secular government as a result of the great revolution and reform of Kamal Ataturk who also ended the Caliphate. Erdogan was jailed for 90 days for attacking the secular government and urging a religious replacement. When he served his sentence he stayed away form demagogic and religious appeals to return the state to a theocracy. though some have always suspected him of having that motive.
In his early political career he talked and acted like a democrat forcing the military out of politics which they had been active in. He obtained the support of the democrats in Turkey and the Western Democratic governments. However as he amassed power he weakened or eliminated most of the4 democartic aspects of Turkish society. He eradicated the independence of the judiciary, gained control over the schools and the universities,, adopted many Islamic aspects of government eradicating the secular government which was the cornerstone of the Attaturk bloodless revolution, prohibited demonstrations against the government and jailed over 150 journalists and forcing many others to flee thereby controlling the press and other information sources. Ironically, despite his one-man autocratic rule, about half the population, many of whom had supported him when he pretended to be a democrat, opposed him causing him to become even more autocratic.
Actually under Islamic law teh relatives of the victems can grant mercy, and they are frequently paid money by the family and friends of the accused murderer to do so. in many cases, the wealthy offender can avoid even long jail terms. However, if the victim's family is also very wealthy, they would often exact vengeance and have the killer executed. This is one major difference between must Western law and Islamic law. In the West we do not giver the relatives of the victim any significant role in the process. Vengeance is not recogniszed and it is society that acts. Recently some states have allowed victim families to man imact statment s to the jury or judge. There had been an aborted revolution and several hundred Turks were killed in the battles betwen the revolutionists and the police and non-revolutionary soldiers.
This quotation illustrates the "winner take all" conceopt of many political cultures that call themselves and think of theselves as a democracy. But a true democracy does not allow a tyranny of the majority--especially a very narrow minority.
Referring to the Erdogan government of Turkey. That country elected Erdogan who then turned his back on the Ataturk inspired democracy and instituted many non-democratic policies and practices including jailing civil servants, teachers and journalists who publicly criticize the president or the government.
See related quote.
He was referring to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, teh President of Turkey, While had had a number of very good and successful policies, as he served in the role, he became les and less democratic until at the time of this quotation, many of the dictatorial practices common in most of he Middle Eastern nations were also operational in Turkey. At the same time Erdogan becan rolling back the nation's comittment to being a secular state, implmented of Kalal Attaturk, thich allowed Turkey to develop much mor-so than any other Muslim majority state in the world. The religious, uneducated, and rural people loved him, while the educated, secular and urban population feard Turkey was regressing to the Islamic domination that had kept all the other Muslim Nations backward while Turkey had after its secular revolution European style modernization joined the modern successful nations with a strong, developed economy, an excellent educational system, very competent in science and Engineering, a modern health system.
For a corroberating quote see Quotation 644762
