From December 7 to 17, Turkey celebrated the “Week of Mawlana,” marking the life and legacy of one of the world’s most popular poets.
Jalal al-Din Rumi, also known as Mawlana, was a 13th-century Persian poet and mystic philosopher. Born in Balkh (now in Afghanistan), Rumi authored thousands of Persian language lines of poetry, sermons, and letters. His popularity has become a global phenomenon, and his works have been widely translated.
As Rumi died on December 17, 1273 in the city of Iconium (now Konya in Turkey), he is particularly popular in Turkey. His legacy is annually commemorated on his death’s anniversary in Konya, and a full week is dedicated to his annual remembrance.
One of the Turkish officials who issued a commemorative message was the governor of the city of Kirklareli, Osman Bilgin.
Referring to Rumi as “the flesh of compassion and mercy,” Governor Bilgin said on December 2 that Rumi “tried to guide people through his words centuries ago in order to establish a world free from hatred, violence and arrogance.” He continued:
“Mawlana enlightens our hearts through his life, his works and his teachings that go beyond centuries. He sows the seeds of unity, solidarity, love and tolerance in our hearts and tells us that a world of peace without discrimination based on language, religion and race is possible. The greatest message of Rumi is love and unity, and at the same time, he is a symbol of peace and brotherhood.”
Yet, one hundred years ago, the governor’s city, Kirklareli – like the rest of Turkey – witnessed one of the world’s most heinous crimes against humanity. This genocide wiped out the ingenious Christian peoples – Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians – from their ancient homeland. Today, Kirklareli has no Christian residents left.
Saranta Ekklisies – Kırk Kilise – Kırklareli
Among Kirklareli’s indigenous peoples are Greeks, who called the city “Saranta Ekklisies” (Σαράντα Εκκλησιές), meaning “Forty Churches.” After the Ottoman Turks invaded the city in the fourteenth century and captured it from the Greek-speaking Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire, the name of the city was translated into Turkish as “Kırk Kilise.”
Then followed the Republican era with the establishment of Turkey in 1923. In the early years of the republic, Dr. Fuad Umay, who was a member of the parliament, presented a proposal to the parliament to change the city’s name. The city was then named Kırklareli, meaning “The Place of the Forties.” Thus both the Greek name of the city and its Turkish translation were erased by the Turkish government.
Not only the Greek name, but also the Greek inhabitants of this ancient city of eastern Thrace were also wiped out from their homeland during the 1913-23 Greek Genocide in Ottoman Turkey. According to the Greek Genocide Resource Center,
A report from Constantinople dated 8th of September 1915 stated that all the villages of the district of Kırklareli had been emptied of their Greek inhabitants. From Yenice (Gr: Skepastos) 3,000 Greeks were deported toward Tekirdağ. On the 8th of September 4000 inhabitants from Sophides were evacuated. The Greeks of Demirköy (Samacovo) in the district of Vize (5,000 inhabitants) were also deported around this time. Tourla and St. Stefano of the Vize district (3,150 inhabitants) were surrounded by Turkish gangs and no one remained.
Yet, the “Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) Mosque,” one of many former Greek Byzantine churches across Turkey, is located in the ancient Bizye, present day Vize, in Kırklareli. And it stands as a testimony to the Greek Christian history of the city. According to the Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Bizye was a capital of the last dynasty of the Odrysian line and the home of Tereus, who in Greek mythology, was king of Thrace.
The Department of Art History and Archeology of Columbia University has carried out an archeological project entitled “the Byzantine Church of Hagia Sophia at Vize in Turkish Thrace,” which says in part:
Located in the ancient Acropolis of Bizye and often identified as the town’s episcopal church during the Byzantine period, the former church of Hagia Sophia at Vize — also known as the Ayasofya or Süleyman Paşa Camii — occupies an important, if somewhat ambiguous position in the history of Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture.
Despite some early hagiographical references mentioning the episcopal church of Bizye, historical information about the building is scant until the late nineteenth-century, when several Greek authors mention the church and its dedication to Hagia Sophia.
The co-organizers of the project, Franz Alto Bauer and Holger A. Klein, also write that,
The ancient city of Bizye (modern Vize) is well known not only as a place of exile during the early Byzantine period, but also as the home and cult center of St. Mary the Younger, a pious woman of Armenian origin who died there in 902 and was subsequently buried in the city’s cathedral…. Cyril Mango was the first to suggest that the Byzantine church still standing on the acropolis of Vize, now known as Ayasofya or Süleyman Paşa Camii, should be identified as Bizye’s Byzantine cathedral and location of the saint’s first tomb as mentioned in her Life.
The former church was restored by Turkey’s General Directorate of Foundations in 2007 and is still open as a mosque, according to the official website of the Kırklareli Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism.
Turkish state authorities often talk of “tolerance,” “democracy” or “coexistence.” However, in the 1913-23 Christian genocide, which Turkey still aggressively denies to this day, Greeks, Assyrians and Armenians were largely exterminated. According to scholars Colin Tatz and Winton Higgin,
Turkish paramilitaries dealt with the three Christian minorities (Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians) through pogroms, deportations, and other atrocities laced with spectacular and gratuitous sadism. The Turks deployed concentration camps and special killing units; they engaged in massacres, public butchering, drownings, and poisonings; they employed elementary gas chambers, medical experiments, starvation, and death marches. (A quarter of a century later the German Nazi regime would assiduously replicate all of these genocidal methods.)
Professor Hannibal Travis also notes that during the genocide,
Greek men became victims of murder, torture, and starvation; Greek women suffered all this and also became slaves in Muslim households; Greek children wandered the streets as orphans ‘half-naked and begging for bread’; and millions of dollars’ worth of Greek property passed into Muslim hands.
Until the Turkish government officially recognizes the Christian genocide and puts an end to its abuse of churches and other non-Muslim places of worship, Turkey can never be a truly civilized and democratic country. No fancy “cultural event” including the “Mawlana Week” can rid Turkey of its moral responsibility of acknowledging historical truths and its crimes against humanity.
Uzay Bulut is a Turkish journalist and political analyst formerly based in Ankara.
jirtu says
I agree with everything in the column and would like to add to two things.
While Roumi came from Afghanistan and wrote in Persian, somehow Turkey or the Turkish government has appropriated him and made him a Turk. To make matters worse, the Turkish government policy and the attitude of most Turks (from what I read) are contrary to Roumi’s words. How do you spell hypocrisy?
The second item: I don’t understand Erdogan’s conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque. How can one pray in a building which was stolen/confiscated from a people of different religion? When a Turk sits in the church and looks at the magnificent architecture created by a people Turks eliminated, how can he focus on Allah? Don’t they feel embarrassment in praying to Allah at a stolen church? Do they believe Allah approves theft and mass murder?
Infidel says
The boundaries b/w what’s Turkish and what’s Iranian is pretty blurred, when it comes to medieval times. Part of this is that what we know today as Turkmenistan was a part of the Sassanid empire when it fell to the Arabs, and the Samanid empire that was the first muslim dynasty to rule Iran. The Samanids were succeeded by the Seljuqs and the Qhwarezmids – both of whom were ethnically Turk and who started around the Merw region. They had empires that crossed Iran, and in the case of the Seljuqs, expanded into Anatolia. The language that they used was Farsi, which is why it’s tricky to categorize them either as Turkish or Iranian. Note that the origin of the Turkish people (aside from those converted at swordpoint) was not Anatolia: it was what’s today’s Turkmenistan – the Oghuz Turks, who became the Seljuqs and later the Ottomans. As far as the language goes, they did mix a lot of Farsi w/ their native Turkic languages that were spoken by the inhabitants of Buqhara, Samarqand, Balasagun and Qashqar
On your second question, muslims have no qualms about stealing buildings and re-purposing them as mosques. If it was something that could be easily demolished and rebuilt, they did that, as they did to thousands of temples in the Indian subcontinent. Like in Delhi, they demolished Hindu and Jain temples to build that large minaret called the Qutb Minar, and the statues of HIndu deities were used to make stepping stones for muslim faithful to step on while entering the mosques. Mosques ain’t places for muslims to meditate on allah: they are indoctrination centers for them to listen to the same hate speech, and sometimes plan their next jihad attack
gravenimage says
Fine post–thank you.
Boycott Turkey says
Remeber it’s ok for Turks and Muslim to pray in a stolen Church because muhammed said stealing is ok if it’s stealing from Christians there is no morals when it comes to Islam
Everytime a Turk prays in Agia Sophia just think the word Allah is under the foot of Jesus
Saskia Russo says
Great idea! They sit under the foot of Jesus. How can anyone take seriously a religion that even specifies which foot should step first into the bathroom? It is a religion totally without morals. A religion, that extols rape, theft and even murder of one’s own children to save face with the community is a religion inspired by the devil himself.
gravenimage says
Jirtu, I believer pious Muslims feel pride when they pray in stolen buildings–pride over having wrested them from the civilized people who created them.
mortimer says
Uzay Bulut writes with insight: “No fancy “cultural event” including the “Mawlana Week” can rid Turkey of its moral responsibility of acknowledging historical truths and its crimes against humanity.”
Then Prince Abdul Mecid (later the last sultan), Heir-Apparent to the Ottoman Throne, during an interview and later Caliph of Islam until 1924, said:
“I refer to those awful massacres (… of Armenians). They are the GREATEST STAIN that has ever disgraced our nation and race. They were entirely the work of Talat and Enver. I heard some days before they began that they were intended. I went to Istanbul and insisted on seeing Enver. I asked him if it was true that they intended to recommence the massacres which had been our shame and disgrace under Abdul Hamid. The only reply I could get from him was: ‘It is decided. It is the program.’”
mortimer says
Some leading Turks have acknowledged the Holocaust against Turkey’s indigenous Christians:
– Grand Vezir Damad Ferid Pasha, (Equivalent rank in the US would be head of the cabinet). Ferid described the treatment of the Armenians as … ‘A crime that drew the revulsion of the entire humankind.’
– Mustafa Arif (Turkish Minister of the Interior) stated on 13 December 1918…
“Surely a few Armenians aided and abetted our enemy, and a few Armenian Deputies committed crimes against the Turkish nation… it is incumbent upon a government to pursue the guilty ones. Unfortunately, our wartime leaders, imbued with a spirit of brigandage, carried out the law of deportation in a manner that could surpass the proclivities of the most bloodthirsty bandits. They decided to exterminate the Armenians, and they did exterminate them.’
jirtu says
Because a few and nameless Armenian deputies allegedly committed crimes against the Turkish nation, every Armenian (1.5 million) had to be slain and the rest deported to the Syrian Desert to die there of the elements, lack of food and water, and hungry beasts. Nothing has changed since. Erdogan jails 12-year-olds for insulting him on Facebook. I’m surprised he didn’t jail their parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews, nieces and the teachers who taught them how to write.
gravenimage says
And the Armenian Genocide began in the mid-1890s, long before anyone could have sided with anyone in the First World War. So even if this were true it is bs.
mgoldberg says
mortimer, in my post college days, I read Rumi and his love poems and tried to imbibe the notion of his rising above all the curiously ugly, quotations from the Qur’an about the glorious submission of unbelievers etc etc. It was confusing as he was a beloved muslim poet and I thought I was reading about the Qu’ran incorrectly. Then- and I don’t remember where and I haven’t looked since, but there I found Rumi praising Mohammed as impeccable and that was that- it was too suspicious for me. Do you know where Rumi happened to speak so about Mohammed and his Qu’ran? I can’t remember where I found his praises of Mo’ but maybe you do?
mgoldberg says
Dang it… it’s right there in wikipedia. At least I think that’s the verse that got me sobered up out of the euphoria, the oceanic thunderings of Rumi’s poetry. It was a long time ago.
“I am the servant of the Qur’an as long as I have life.
I am the dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen one.
If anyone quotes anything except this from my sayings,
I am quit of him and outraged by these words.”
gravenimage says
Good point, mgoldberg. Even though Rumi was anything but an orthodox Muslim, he still held the vicious “Prophet” and Qur’an in the highest esteem.
This New Yorker article–written by a Muslim, of course–bemoans Islam often being whitewashed from Rumi’s work:
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-erasure-of-islam-from-the-poetry-of-rumi
Infidel says
One truth about the Sufis is that their mystical practices, such as that of the Dervish, would lull people into believing that they were a peaceful group. Not only was that false – one thing Sufis emphasized was all other beliefs – Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, et al being false, and their chants being the true message of love. The underlying objective was to wean away people from their belief in their deities, and get them to follow islamic practices w/o necessarily formally converting to islam
One thing I learned recently in OpIndia was about the leading Sufi ‘saint’ in India – Khwaja Moinudin Chisti. Found out that he was actually a soldier w/ one of the earliest invaders of India Mohammed Ghori. To this day, not just muslims, but secular Indians of other faiths visit his shrine in Ajmer, not knowing that he was a destroyer of Hindu temples and butchered cattle in temples in order to descecrate them
https://www.opindia.com/2020/06/islamic-jihad-india-sufi-khwaja-moinuddin-chisti-garib-nawaz-nizamuddin-khilji-hindus-forced-conversions/
mgoldberg says
Yes… GI, Rumi was anything but an orthodox muslim… he was indeed a soaring poet. And the ideas from that New Yorker article ‘ about divorcing him from Islam are actually important, but not as that author surmises. I’ve posted the below screed and commentary by an 18th century Sufi master, Ibn Ajibha, and it is skin crawlingly apparent from reading it, why mysticism should not and cannot be divorced from any doctrinal basis… because it reveals what it wants and believes as the poet might say- beneath the plywood’.
the 18th century Moroccan Sufi “master” Ibn Ajibah from
his Koranic commentary. Describing unabashedly the
purpose of the humiliating Koranic poll tax [6] (as per
Koran 9:29 [6]) of submission for non-Muslims brought
under Islamic hegemony by jihad, Ibn Ajibah makes clear
the ultimate goal of its imposition was to achieve what he
called the death of the “soul”, through the dhimmi’s
execution of their own humanity:
[The dhimmi] is commanded to put his soul, good fortune
and desires to death. Above all he should kill the love of
life, leadership and honor. [The dhimmi] is to invert the
longings of his soul, he is to load it down more heavily
than it can bear until it is completely submissive.
Thereafter nothing will be unbearable for him. He will be
indifferent to subjugation or might. Poverty and wealth
will be the same to him; praise and insult will be the
same; preventing and yielding will be the same; lost and
found will be the same. Then, when all things are the
same, it [the soul] will be submissive and yield willingly
what it should give. [Tafsir ibn ‘Ajibah. Commentary
James Lincoln says
Infidel says,
“One truth about the Sufis is that their mystical practices, such as that of the Dervish, would lull people into believing that they were a peaceful group.”
Yes, classic bait and switch…
gravenimage says
Thanks, Infidel and mgoldberg. Sufism is *anything* but peaceful, as you both note.
Rbla says
The Sufi saint Rumi employed a Greek architect and Greek masons for work on his house providing devastating testimony regarding the superiority of craftsmen of Christian origin over those of Turks. He is quoted, in one instance, explaining “the desirability of using Greek rather than Turkish masons.”
__ Vryonis, “The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor”
Mojdeh says
Thanks a lot great articles , indeed as always. Rumi books of poems translated in 100 languages pretty much every one has a book of him.
1. Rumi was born in Central Asia, most likely in present-day Tajikistan, near the border of Afghanistan.
There’s some disagreement about where Rumi was born, but Gooch concludes it was the town of Vaksh, in modern-day Tajikistan.
This region of the world had once been part of the larger Persian Empire, and a result, influenced by the Zoroastrian religion. Beginning in the mid-7th century, Arab tribes began to conquer the land, adding Islam to the mix of religions practiced in the region. By the time the poet was born on September 30, 1207, Gooch says, Buddhist influences were also present in the area.
“There was a great clash of cultures but also synergy of cultures in that part of the world that is really important to understand,” Gooch said. “It’s kind of the perfect place for him to grow up.”
2. His father and grandfather were well-known Muslim preachers and jurists, and he was expected to follow this more traditional path.
Rumi came from a line of preachers. His father, Baha Valad, was an occasional preacher at the local mosque and a Sunni jurist. Baha Valad was strict about keeping religious rules and regulations, although he was influenced by Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam that Rumi would later be identified with.
“They were respected people,” Gooch said.
gravenimage says
They were certainly respected in Islam, Mojdeh. But one can well imagine the savagery they preached and presided over.
GreekEmpress says
Library here finally got a copy of “The Thirty Year Genocide” by Benny Morris and Dror Ze’evi.
I’m next in line on the waiting list. Has anybody here on JW read it yet?
jirtu says
I read it a few months ago. Impeccable research. The title–“The Thirty Year Genocide”–is important because it points out that the Armenian Genocide didn’t happen just in 1915, It started in 1895 during the Hamidian massacres which witnessed the killing of 200,000 to 300,000 Armenian civilians. There was another massacre in Adana in 1909 while the 1915 Genocide continued until 1922 when Ataturk was running Turkey. Because he got rid of the fez, the veil, and the Arabic alphabet, Ataturk (a dictator) has a positive image among many people around the world. However, he was as murderous as the Young Turks who had organized the Armenian Genocide. “The Thirty Year Genocide” is worth every cent spent to purchase it. It’s important to read it because Turkey spends millions of dollars every year to deny the veracity of the Armenian Genocide.
GreekEmpress says
Thanks, jirtu
Looking forward to reading it.
gravenimage says
I haven’t read it, but I will put it on my list. Have you read “The Burning Tigris” by Peter Balakian? An excellent but terribly harrowing book.
jirtu says
I read Balakyan’s book. Harrowing it is. The genocide of Armenians began on April 24, 1915 when the Young Turks arrested the Armenian community leaders, clergyman, lawyers, physicians, journalists, authors. Balakyan’s uncle was among them. All the arrested were in shock because it was so unexpected. One of them (lawyer, parliamentarian, and author Krikor Zohrab) was a friend of Tal;’at Pasha (one of the three Young Turks who gave the order for the genocide) had coffee with Tal’at the day before. The group–I don’t know how many they were–were taken to remote parts of the country and killed in cold blood. A few survived. One of them was Gomidas, the priest who was composer and musical folklorist. He went insane as a result of the experience. The Young Turks had planned the genocide two or three years earlier but had decided to wait for the opportune time. The First World War, when the world was pre-occupied by the war, was the perfect time they thought to commit their horrendous crime. A minor consolation: Armenians killed the three Young Turks (Tal’at, Jemal, Enver), two through assassination and Enver in battle. I wouldn’t be surprised if Erdogan and Aliev should be careful.
gravenimage says
Thanks, Jirtu.
The Armenian Genocide–which actually targeted *all* Christians: Armenian, Assyrian, Greek, and Levantine–was executed in a series of waves, beginning in the mid-1890s, with major flare-ups in 1915 and 1922. It began under the Ottoman Empire, continued under the “Young Turks” and under Ataturk. They may not have agreed on many things, but they were all good with murdering Christians.
At the end, between 1.5 and 2 million Christians had been murdered or driven out–almost the entire Christian population.
jirtu says
Yes, in addition to committing the Armenian Genocide, the Turks (I say Turks because most of the Turkish population eagerly took part in the genocide) lead by the government also committed genocide against the Assyrians, and the Greeks. The total number of non-Turks that they killed exceeds 1.5 million because that’s the number of Armenians they killed. The statistics of the Armenian population before and after the Genocide make the 1.5 million figure credible although Turks are forever trying to diminish the number. I have read that they killed close to 400,000 Assyrians. I wish someone here would give us the correct number. Likewise for Greeks killed by Turks. Because the massacres and genocide of Armenians was prolonged, a small group of Armenians (7,000 to 10,000) formed guerrilla forces to defend their communities. They were underfunded, and badly armored civilians who often used home-made guns. Because of the vastness of the country and poor transportation and communication they were isolated groups in towns and villages. They faced an army of 700,000 to one million who had modern German weapons and were backed by thousand of German officers. Turkish propagandists now claim Armenians had to be eliminated because they (the 7,000!) were going to break up the empire and establish Armenia. If that is so, why did the Turks also commit genocide of Assyrians and Greeks who had no fighters. The intent of Turkey was clear: eliminate non-Turks unless they were Muslim (Chechens, Circassians, Kurds, etc.). Of course, a few years later it was the turn of the Kurds to be crushed because of their supposed plot to wreck the country.
gravenimage says
All true, Jirtu.
And the Turks were actually already oppressing the Kurds during this period–but this did not stop them from enthusiastically murdering Armenians and other Christians.
gravenimage says
Turkey: Poems and Genocides
…………………
Of course, Rumi would be considered a heretic by pious Muslims.
Crusades Were Right says
The Armenian Genocide…
…a “work in progress”. See Recep Erdogan and Ilham Aliyev for details.
jirtu says
A number of times in the past century, Turkish leaders have stated another Armenian Genocide isn’t unlikely. Turkey sees Armenians as a obstruction to the Pan-Turanic dream of a single contiguous Turkish state from Istanbul to the Chinese border. Now that Erdogan has Aliev in his pocket, an attempt to join Turkey and Azerbaijan would the first step in the realization of his Pan-Turanic dream. I am amazed neighboring countries, Russia, and the West have been watching without stopping Turkey’s expansionist dream.
I recently learned the Turks describe Armenians as “remnants of the sword,” meaning those who survived the Genocide. “Remnants of the sword” is another way of saying the Genocide is a “work in progress.”
Finally, when Russia was going through turbulence during the last days of Yeltsin, Turkey tried to take advantage and amassed 50,000 soldiers at its border with Armenia in preparation for an unprovoked invasion. The Russian Defense Minister told Ankara that if Turkey invaded, it would face the Russian army. The Turks cancelled the invasion but the idea of erasing Armenia is a permanent part of Ankara’s plans.
gravenimage says
And there have been other progroms against the small number of Christians surviving in Turkey–probaby most notable were the Istanbul Riots, where in 1955 Greeks were targeted for mob violence, This was overseen by the government itself. A false rumor was issued that the Turkish Embassy in Thessolonika. Armenians and Jews were also harmed.
Most of the surviving Greeks fled Turkey after this.
Then there have been other incidents, like the murder of Armenian journalist Hrant DInk in 2007–that was covered here at Jihad Watch. He urged recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
In the same vein, here is the recent story from Turkey urging the expulsion of surviving Armenians in Turkey because France recognized the Armenian Genocide:
“Turkey: Politician calls for expulsion of Armenians as revenge for French recognition of Armenian genocide”
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2019/02/turkey-politician-calls-for-expulsion-of-armenians-as-revenge-for-french-recognition-of-armenian-genocide
I’m sensing a theme here…
Earth Observer says
Well, nowadays in the West, being “oppressed” has become such a privilege, and we see Muslims & migrant “minorities” being so much embraced by the main-stream media and the Left-wing politicians.
But when it comes to the real oppressed minorities under Islam, like this case with the Christians in Turkey, no one in the West or international organization (like UN) ever cares – truly, we never hear these reported in MSM.
I believe there’s some “Deep State” things allowing these to happen, and the pattern is typically “fearing the evil while bullying the good”, as they also seldom denounce another wing of evil besides Islam – Chinese Communism.
The Western Left-wing politicians are merely puppets on stage. There’re fundamental things behind the curtains.
May the universe bless us all.
Sahin says
Uzay Bulut, you suffer from internalized Turkophobia. Why are you so racist against your country? I hope people who plot against their own country like yourself die and rot in hell, traitorous scum!
gravenimage says
Uzay Bulut has a problem with Turkey persecuting Christians and other minorities, and she is “Turkophobic”? And most Christians are the same ethnicitiy as their Muslim oppressors in Turkey, so how is this about race?
You might think that Sahin considers the oppression of non-Muslims to be core part of Islam…
jirtu says
So when a righteous Turk justifiably criticizes Turkey, she suffers from internalized Turcophobia–whatever that means. Your outburst that Bulut and other righteous Turks “die and rot in hell!” disqualifies you from entering into civilized dialogue. Name calling is undignified and signals desperation on your part. By the way, you got the wrong religious imagery. People rot when they are buried–they don’t rot in hell. Hell is for burning.
For all I know, you might be living in “no-freedom-of-press” Erdogan Turkey. Thus, you are not aware that Erdogan has made Turkey a pariah state…in addition to bankrupting it. Do you know that the only friends Turkey has nowadays are the Azeri dictatorship, the imbecile Pakistan, and corrupt Qatar? I don’t think the people of “Northern Cyprus” like Erdogan’s Turkey anymore.
Infidel says
You forgot Malaysia – that’s one more friend of Turkey. I do wonder about the other stans, though – the ones that are a part of the Turkic council – Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
gravenimage says
+1