Military coup underway in Turkey

A wise decision, IMO.

2 ruling party officials shot and killed in Turkey

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey's official news agency says two ruling party officials serving in district organizations have been shot and killed, and ruling party officials blamed Kurdish militants. The Anadolu news agency says Orhan Mercan, a vice president of an AKP branch in the southeastern Diyarbakir province, died Saturday after being shot near his house. It says Aydin Ahi, who was serving as vice president for a party branch in the eastern province of Van, was killed late Saturday.

AKP officials decried the slayings, which they blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Minister Omer Celik tweeted Sunday that "terror is attacking our nation's "political" institution."

A cease-fire between Turkey and the PKK collapsed in 2015, restarting a more than three-decade-long conflict that has left an estimated 40,000 people dead.

Oh Lord, now Erdogan has the perfect excuse for even more repression.

Turkish police chase away transgender marchers in Istanbul

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish police chased away a small group of transgender rights activists who attempted to march to Istanbul's main square Sunday while carrying rainbow flags despite an official ban on the event. Seven people were detained.

The rights group Istanbul LGBTI, host of the 8th Trans Pride March, had said on social media it won't recognize the governor's ban. Activists gathered in Harbiye district and in a live statement on Facebook said, "We are trans, we are here, get used to it, we are not leaving."

The organization tweeted "all roads lead to Taksim," using the hashtag "GameOfTrans," but police prevented them from reaching Taksim Square. A water cannon sent to the area wasn't used on the activists.

The Istanbul governor's office banned the march late Saturday for the second year in a row. It said "marginal groups" on social media had called for the march and it was being banned to preserve public order and to keep participants and tourists safe.

The ban also said, "very serious reactions have been raised by different segments of society," in reference to threats by conservative and ultranationalist groups made against trans and LGBT marches. Istanbul police announced Sunday they would close multiple roads to traffic at noon as part of its security measures. Large numbers of plainclothes and riot police officers were stationed around Taksim.

The U.S. Consulate in Istanbul issued a security message Friday informing its citizens of possible "heavy police presence and counter demonstrations" and asking them to exercise caution. The message also said participation in illegal gatherings could lead to detention or arrest under a state of emergency imposed after last summer's failed coup.

The LGBTI group's lawyer said seven protesters were detained. Turkey doesn't criminalize transsexuality, but its civil code requires court permission and forced sterilization for transgender men and women to undergo gender reassignment.

Rights activists say transgender individuals face rampant discrimination and hate crimes in Turkey, and want to march for visibility and acceptance. In 2016, Transgender Europe said Turkey has the highest number of trans murders in Europe. The brutal murder of 23-year-old Hande Kader caused an outcry in Istanbul and the global LGBT movement last summer.

The Turkish government says there is no discrimination against LGBT individuals and that current laws already protect each citizen. It also insists that perpetrators of hate crimes are prosecuted. Last week, the governor's office banned a march for LGBT rights for the third year. Police set up checkpoints to prevent participants from gathering and used tear gas and plastic bullets to disperse crowds. Forty-one people were detained, among them activists and counterdemonstrators.

Turkey insists some troops stay in any Cyprus peace deal

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Turkey toughened its stance Tuesday in talks to reunify Cyprus, insisting that it won't sign any deal involving the withdrawal of all its troops from the ethnically divided Mediterranean island nation.

At talks to end Cyprus' 43-year ethnic divide at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made it clear that a peace accord would not include a specific, agreed-upon date by which all Turkish troops would have to be pulled out.

"There will be no sunset clause ... and Turkish troops will be staying on the island because this is the demand of the Turkish Cypriots," Cavusoglu said. "If there is anybody dreaming this, they have to wake up, there will be no sunset clause."

Turkey has kept more than 35,000 troops on Cyprus since 1974, when it invaded in the wake of a coup mounted by supporters of union with Greece. The minority Turkish Cypriots think their presence undergirds their security and want them to stay.

Cavusoglu has previously stated Turkey's opposition to a full troop withdrawal as part of a deal to unify the island as a federation between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. But Tuesday's remarks appeared unequivocal, leaving no negotiating room for Greek Cypriots, who have been pushing for a full troop pull-out in order to remove what they see as a threat and a vestige of control from Ankara.

It's unclear how Cavusoglu's remarks will impact the talks between Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci. In addition, Turkey, along with Cyprus' two other guarantors — Greece and Britain, the island's former colonial ruler — are deeply involved in the negotiations, especially on the pivotal issue of the island's future security.

"The Turkish Cypriots have been very clear at every meeting that they ... have security concerns," said Cavusoglu. However, Cavusoglu indicated there was room to change the security regime that operated before the 1974 invasion. He said the military intervention rights and security guarantees accorded to Cyprus' "guarantors" under the island's 1960 constitution could be adapted for the current day.

But he repeated that complete abolition of those intervention rights and security guarantees is a "non-starter" for both Turkey and the breakaway Turkish Cypriots. Anastasiades has proposed an international police force, backed by the U.N. Security Council, to keep the peace once the island is reunified. He said outside military forces have no place on Cyprus, arguing that European Union statutes guarantee ample security.

Cyprus is an EU member, but only the Greek Cypriot southern part that is the seat of the island's internationally recognized government enjoys full benefits. Akinci rebuffed suggestions by Anastasiades that Turkish and Turkish Cypriot security proposals aren't in line with a possible deal's parameters that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres laid out after talks last week.

Guterres' presence helped break a procedural impasse on Friday. Cavusoglu said he may return on Thursday if needed. Apart from security, a number of issues — including a Turkish Cypriot demand to take turns holding the federal presidency with Greek Cypriots — remain to be resolved in parallel negotiations.

The talks, which started June 28, are to run until the end of the week.

I remember the Turkish invasion, and Brit holidaymakers being rescued from beaches by the Royal Navy.

High-rise hotels are crumbling and the land has been reclaimed by overgrown vegetation in Varosha, a suburb of Famagusta, Cyprus

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3461893/Varosha-drone-footage-shows-stunning-view-Cyprus-ghost-town.html#ixzz4luIgG5mN
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The Turks have just left it to rot.

Turkey protesters stage long march against Erdogan.

The marchers wear white T-shirts emblazoned with the Turkish word for justice

At 08:00, the motorway tarmac was radiating heat. There was no shade from the 30C heat, just the exhaust fumes of passing cars.

Not the most pleasant route for a walk. But spirits were high.

"Adalet!" chanted the thousands gathered - "Justice!"

Their white T-shirts emblazoned with the word rapidly became soaked with sweat on day 19 of a 450km (280-mile) march from Ankara to Istanbul.

The movement began when Enis Berberoglu, an opposition MP from the Republican People's Party (CHP), was arrested for allegedly leaking documents purporting to show the Turkish government arming jihadists in Syria, which he denies.

But it has become a wider uprising against what participants see as an erosion of democracy under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.    More at link.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40492401

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-05/turkey-warns-its-ready-military-intervention-syria-accuses-us-creating-terrorist-arm

Speaking in an interview with France 24, in which Turkish president Recep Erdogan lashed out at Germany for not allowing him to address the Turkish community there and preventing him from bringing his bodyguards to the upcoming G20 meeting in Hamburg, Erdogan warned that Turkey is ready to intervene militarily in north Syria to repel Syrian Kurdish forces there, forces which recall are armed and supported by the US but are seen as a terrorist organisation by Turkey.

He also said that to avoid military intervention, a de-escalation zone could soon be established by Turkish and Russian troops in the region.

Separately, Turkey's deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told Reuters on Wednesday that Turkish military preparations in northwest Syria are "legitimate measures against a threat from Kurdish forces in the Afrin region, and Turkey will retaliate against any hostile move." He added in an interview that "This is not a declaration of war. We are making preparations against potential threats" adding that "It's ... a legitimate measure so that we can protect our independence. We cannot remain silent against those sending missiles from Afrin."

Kurtulmus was responding to the head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, who told Reuters that Turkish military deployments near Kurdish-held areas of northwestern Syria were a declaration of war which could trigger clashes within days.

"Their (YPG) primary goal is a threat to Turkey, and if Turkey sees a YPG movement in northern Syria that is a threat to it, it will retaliate in kind," Kurtulmus said. "This isn't a fantasy for us...it is an indispensible approach to protect Turkey's border security."

The problem stems from Ankara's consideration of the US-allied YPG as an extension of the outlawed Kurdish PKK group which has waged an insurgency in southeast Turkey since the 1980s. Turkey was angered by a U.S. decision to arm the YPG as it marched with it allies on Raqqa.....etc

EU parliament advises freeze of Turkey's membership talks.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The European Parliament has advised the European Union to freeze accession talks with Turkey amid growing concerns over the country's human rights and democracy. Turkey rejected Thursday's move, calling it an attempt to "sabotage" relations with the EU.

The legislature voted 477-64 with 97 abstentions to approve a non-binding report recommending the suspension of the negotiations in the wake Turkey's referendum in April that approved constitutional amendments to give the president sweeping new powers.

The parliament called on the EU's 28 states to formally suspend the talks "without delay" if the constitutional reforms are implemented without change in Turkey. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said what mattered was the opinion of EU leaders and that there was no change in Turkey's aim for EU membership.

"The EU should determine its vision for its future and decide whether or not it will walk with Turkey," he said. The EU has been concerned by declining human rights, media freedoms and rule of law issues in Turkey. Frequent comments by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowing to re-instate the death penalty have also raised alarm.

Turkey embarked on an unprecedented crackdown in the aftermath of last year's failed military coup attempt, arresting some 50,000 people and dismissing tens of thousands civil servants, which the EU has criticized as a disproportionate response.

"This Parliament speaks with one and clear and loud voice in condemning the Turkish government's serious decline in democratic standards," said Kati Piri, who prepared Thursday's report. Omer Celik, the minister in charge of relations with the EU, slammed the report as "geared toward sabotaging relations" and said Turkey would consider it "null and void" as it has done with equivalent reports in the past.

"When the report reaches us, we will return it to the (European Parliament) without making any assessments," Celik told reporters. Before the vote, Celik said the decision would go down in history as a "terrible mistake" and that European lawmakers should be standing in solidarity with Turkey following last year's failed coup attempt.

The minister also said Turkey would never accept any proposal to reformulate EU-Turkish ties through a series of agreements on immigration, combating terrorism and trade.

I can't see that going down well...

Turkish party leader becomes victims' voice with long march.

ISTANBUL (AP) — The leader of Turkey's main opposition party said Friday he believes he has become the voice of thousands of people victimized by the government's large-scale crackdown on civil servants, journalists and critics following last year's failed coup attempt.

Republican People's Party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu is leading a 426-kilometer (250-mile) "March for Justice" from the capital of Ankara to Istanbul to protest President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's policies.

The march, now in its 23rd day, originally was planned to denounce the imprisonment of a party lawmaker. It has grown into a wider protest of the post-coup crackdown that has extended beyond people associated with the coup to include journalists, academics and Kurdish politicians.

Tens of thousands are marching alongside Kilicdaroglu. "There are many victims in this society, and we have become their spokesman," he told The Associated Press on Friday. "If only there was no need for this march and there was democracy, media freedoms, if civic society groups could freely express their opinions," the opposition leader added.

The government says the crackdown is necessary due to the gravity of the July 2016 coup attempt, in which state buildings were attacked with helicopters and tanks and more than 240 people died. It says the threat posed by a network of followers of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen — whom Turkey accuses of masterminding the coup — is not yet over. Gulen has denied involvement.

The government has accused Kilicdaroglu of supporting terrorist groups through his protest action. The march ends Sunday with a rally planned near the prison where the Republican People's Party legislator is being held.

Parliament member Enis Berberoglu was sentenced to 25 years in prison for revealing state secrets for allegedly leaking information to an opposition newspaper suggesting that Turkey's intelligence service had smuggled weapons to Islamist rebels in Syria.

He's a brave man.

Russia, Turkey leaders meet at G-20 summit.

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — Russia President Vladimir Putin has met with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit, hailing his contribution to Syria peace efforts.

Putin said at the start of their meeting in Hamburg that Erdogan's stance "has made it possible to improve the situation in Syria." Erdogan similarly praised Putin's role and noted that efforts by Russia and Turkey "set a clear example for the international community."

Russia, Turkey and Iran have made a deal in May to set up de-escalation zones in Syria, but specifics related to their boundaries and monitoring mechanisms are yet to be determined. In a separate development, Russia and the U.S. made a deal to declare a cease-fire in southwestern Syria beginning Sunday. The agreement also involved Jordan.

It would be good if all this helped stop the slaughter, but that's probably a vain hope.

Turkey's failed coup: Warrants issued for 105 tech experts.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish authorities have issued detention warrants for 105 information technology experts suspected of aiding last year's failed coup, the state-run news agency reported. The warrants were issued Tuesday as Turkey kicked off a week of events commemorating the July 15 anniversary of the thwarted coup and remembering about 250 people who were killed.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim visited a graveyard in Istanbul where some of the victims were buried, while special prayers were to be recited in honor of the dead at mosques across the country.

Anadolu Agency says 52 of the suspects, who include ex-employees of Turkey's scientific research council and of the telecommunications authority, have been detained so far. They are accused of providing technical support to the coup plotters.

Turkey has blamed U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen for the coup and is seeking his extradition. Gulen has denied involvement. Turkey declared a state of emergency following the attempt and embarked on a sweeping crackdown, arresting some 50,000 people for alleged links to the coup and dismissing over 100,000 from government jobs.

Austria bars Turkish economy minister over rally plans.

Austria has blocked Turkish economy minister Nihat Zeybekci from entering the country to join a rally marking the anniversary of last year's failed coup attempt in Turkey.

"He has been barred because his visit was not planned as part of a bilateral exchange, but was about his public appearance at an event marking the coup attempt," Austria foreign ministry spokesman Thomas Schnoell told AFP.

Zeybekci's attendance at the "large event" would have represented a "danger for public order", Schnoell added.

"The Turkish government wants to exert its political influence in Austria. We won't allow that," Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern told Oe1 public radio.

Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu hit back at Vienna in a statement, accusing the Austrian authorities of demonstrating they were "not sincere in defending democratic values".

The rally is scheduled to take place in Vienna on Sunday.

It is being organized by the Austrian branch of the Union of European Turkish Democrats (UETD), a pro-Ankara group present in several European Union countries.

UETD spokesman Ramazan Aktas called Vienna's move "undemocratic".

The Turkish economy ministry said it had not made a formal request to organize an event to commemorate the July 15th failed putsch in Austria.

The ministry added in a statement there had been plans for Zeybekci to meet in the near future with the Austrian foreign and economic affairs ministers but made no separate demand.

Austria's move came three days after the Dutch government warned Turkey against sending its deputy premier, Tugrul Turkes, to address a rally in the eastern Netherlands this week to mark the abortive coup.

Ties between Ankara and the European Union have been strained over the crackdown that followed the July 15th 2016 attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Earlier this year, several countries including Austria and Germany banned pro-Ankara rallied ahead of a controversial referendum in April on granting Erdogan sweeping powers.

Turkish ministers had been heading to Europe to whip up support for a "yes" vote among millions of Turkey's voters who live abroad.

Some 360,000 people of Turkish origin live in Austria, including 117,000 Turkish citizens. Many are believed to be pro-Erdogan supporters whose vote helped him win the referendum.

Year after Turkish coup, thousands feel wrongfully punished.

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AP) — Abdullah Korkmaz worked as a teacher and elementary school principal in Turkey for 18 years before he was caught up, like more than 100,000 other public sector workers, in the expansive crackdown on civil servants that followed an attempted military coup a year ago.

Barred from his profession as a result of the purge the government says is targeting terrorists, the 48-year-old veteran educator now struggles to make ends meet. Private employers are reluctant to hire people on the government's blacklist, so Korkmaz opened a small restaurant serving a spicy raw meatball delicacy at a in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.

"You wake up early every morning to turn the heating on, you paint the school's walls, you replace the windows even though you are not given a budget, and then you get expelled," Korkmaz told The Associated Press in his restaurant.

The failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan killed some 250 people and injured 2,000 on July 15, 2016. But the unsuccessful takeover also upended Turkish society and institutions, as well as the lives of and livelihoods of individual Turks who have been linked directly or indirectly. More at link.

https://www.mail.com/int/news/europe/5355076-year-turkish-coup-thousands-feel-wrongfully-punish.html#.1258-stage-hero1-7

Turkey marks anniversary of failed coup against Erdogan rule

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey is commemorating the first anniversary of the quashed military coup that sought to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a series of events honoring some 250 people who were killed on July 15, 2016, while trying to stop the insurrection.

The coup attempt was the greatest challenge to the rule of Erdogan, who has been in power since 2003, first as prime minister and later as president. After crushing the attempted takeover, Erdogan went on to win a referendum in April that will considerably extend the powers of his office — a move that has raised fear among opponents who say he has become increasingly authoritarian.

The rebellion unfolded on a Friday evening when a group of military officers commandeered warplanes, helicopters and tanks to attack key government buildings in the capital, including parliament and the presidential palace complex. They held Istanbul's main bridge and square, attacked some government buildings and tried to overtake television stations. They also tried to capture or kill the president, who was vacationing at a Mediterranean resort at the time.

Heeding a call by Erdogan broadcast on CNN-Turk through a video app, thousands of people took to the streets to stop the tanks and soldiers. Police and officers loyal to the government put down the coup, which did not have support in the military's top echelons, within hours.    More at link.

https://www.mail.com/int/news/europe/5357854-turkey-marks-anniversary-failed-coup-erdogan-rule.html#.1258-stage-hero1-6

I am afraid the 'failed coup' increasingly reminds me of the Reichstag fire.....it's certainly worked out well for Erdogan.

bb1 wrote:I am afraid the 'failed coup' increasingly reminds me of the Reichstag fire.....it's certainly worked out well for Erdogan.

He was on BBC's HardTalk this morning, he managed to lie again and again, but the eyes of the interviewer gave away that she didn't believe him either. LL

Turkey celebrates defeat of anti-Erdogan putsch after new purge.

Turkey on Saturday holds an intense series of events to celebrate the first anniversary of the defeat of last year's attempted coup, showcasing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's grip on power on the heels of a new purge of state employees.

The authorities have declared July 15 an annual national holiday of "democracy and unity", billing the foiling of the putsch as a historic victory of Turkish democracy.

Two hundred and forty nine people, not including the plotters, were killed when a disgruntled faction in the army sent tanks into the streets and war planes into the sky in a violent bid to overthrow Erdogan after one-and-a-half decades in power.

But they were thwarted within hours as the authorities regrouped and people poured into the streets in support of Erdogan, who blamed followers of his ally turned nemesis, the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.

The authorities embarked on the biggest purge in Turkey's history, arresting 50,000 people and sacking over 100,000 more. Erdogan also shored up his position by winning an April 16 referendum on enhancing his powers.

In the latest dismissals ordered just hours before the commemorations were due to begin, another 7,563 police, soldiers and other state employees were fired under the state of emergency that has been in place since July 20 last year.

A decree said those targeted were "linked to terror organisations, or groups determined to have been acting against the state's national security".

Earlier this month, Turkey also detained the country director of Amnesty International and over half a dozen rights defenders on charges of belonging to a terror group.

Gulen has always denied involvement in the coup bid and in a new statement Friday said the accusations were "baseless, politically motivated slanders" and slammed a "witch hunt" of Erdogan's critics.

The scale of Saturday's nationwide commemorations is aimed at etching July 15, 2016 into the minds of Turks as a key date in the history of the modern state founded in 1923 out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.

"From now on, nothing will be as it was before July 15," Erdogan said in a speech on Thursday, describing the date as a "turning point" in Turkish history.

He compared the defeat of the coup to the World War 1 1915 Battle of Gallipoli where Ottoman troops famously withstood an onslaught by invading Allied soldiers in what became one of the founding narratives of the modern state.

Giant posters designed by the presidency have sprung up across billboards in Istanbul showing gaudy paintings that portray the key events of the coup night, including the surrender of the putschist soldiers.

"The epic of July 15," says the slogan. However some have criticised the posters for belittling the Turkish army.

Turkey's opposition put political disputes aside on the night of the attempted coup.

But this has frayed since the April 16 referendum, with critics accusing Erdogan of pursuing one man rule and cracking down on anyone who expresses dissent.

The commemorations will for Erdogan be a helpful riposte to a giant opposition rally -- the largest in years -- held last Sunday by the head of the Republican People's Party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu at the end of a nearly one month foot march pushing for "justice" in Turkey.

Public transport is free in Istanbul over the weekend while mobile operator Turkcell has sent text messages to clients promising them a free extra gigabyte of data from July 15.

Meanwhile, illuminated anti-coup slogans have been hung between the minarets of some of Istanbul's greatest Ottoman mosques.

After a special session of parliament starting at 1000 GMT, most of the celebrations will be taking place deep into the night.

Erdogan, at the centre of the events, will to take part in a people's march on the Istanbul bridge across the Bosphorus that saw bloody fighting a year ago.

The bridge has since been renamed Bridge of the Martyrs of July 15.

At midnight local time (2100 GMT) people across Turkey will take part in "democracy watches", rallies commemorating how people poured out into the streets.

Erdogan will return to Ankara and at 2300 GMT give a speech in parliament to mark the time it was bombed.

A monument to those killed will then be unveiled outside his palace in the capital as the dawn call to prayer rings out.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/turkey-celebrate-defeat-anti-erdogan-putsch-003029277.html

He compared the defeat of the coup to the World War 1 1915 Battle of Gallipoli where Ottoman troops famously withstood an onslaught by invading Allied soldiers in what became one of the founding narratives of the modern state.

I hardly think so. Gallipoli was a stunning victory over the British Empire and their hare-brained invasion. The 'failed coup' reeks of political chicanery and opportunism.

I found a couple of items re Ataturk that show the enormous gulf between his view of modern Turkey and Erdogan's.

Atatürk believed that religion is an important institution:
“Religion is an important institution. A nation without religion cannot survive. Yet it is also very important to note that religion is a link between Allah and the individual believer. The brokerage of the pious cannot be permitted. Those who use religion for their own benefit are detestable. We are against such a situation and will not allow it. Those who use religion in such a manner have fooled our people; it is against just such people that we have fought and will continue to fight. Know that whatever conforms to reason, logic, and the advantages and needs of our people conforms equally to Islam. If our religion did not conform to reason and logic, it would not be the perfect religion, the final religion.”

However, his speeches and publications criticized using religion as a political ideology.  He stated that religion should be in conformity with reason, science and logic. The problem was not religion, but how believers understood and applied religion. True religion could not be understood as long as false prophets isolated and religious knowledge is enlightened. The only way to deal with false prophets was to deal with the Turkish people's illiteracy and prejudice.

Religion, particularly Islam, was between an individual and God in Atatürk's eyes.   When compared to Ottoman practice (political Islam integrated to government life through Millets), Atatürk believed in a form of reformed Islam (Islam between an individual and God). He believed it was possible to blend native tradition (based on Islam) and Western modernism harmoniously.   In this equation, he gave more emphasis towards the modernization. His modernization aimed to transform social and mental structures (native traditions of Islam) to eradicate the irrational ideas, magical superstitions and so on.

Atatürk was not against religion but what he perceived as all Ottoman religious and cultural elements that brought limits to people's self being.   He concentrated his reforms (regarding popular sovereignty) against obstacles for the individual choices being reflected in the social life. He viewed civil law and abolition of the caliphate as required for reflection of individual choices. He perceived religion as a matter of conscience or worship, but not politics. The best response on this issue comes from himself:
“Religion is a matter of conscience. One is always free to act according to the will of one's conscience. We (as a nation) are respectful of religion. It is not our intention to curtail freedom of worship, but rather to ensure that matters of religion and those of the state do not become intertwined.”

Atatürk believed in freedom of religion, but he was a secular thinker and his concept of freedom of religion was not limitless. He differentiated between social and personal practice of religion. He applied social considerations (secular requirements) when the public practice of religion was considered. He said that no one can force another to accept any religion or a sect (freedom of belief).   Also, everyone has the right to perform or neglect, if he so wishes, obligations of any religion he chooses (freedom of worship), such as the right to not fast during Ramadan."

It has been claimed he was a devout Muslim, and agnostic or even an athiest.   LL