07 February 2012

Erdogan fuels ‘secret agenda’ debate

.... it was Prime Minister Erdogan himself who has fueled the “secret agenda” debate now. He did this with a speech to party members in Parliament last week, where he indicated that as a conservative party they wanted to raise not just conservative but also religious generations in Turkey. His remarks received rapturous applause from AKP deputies, but the response from secular quarters was hardly surprising.

For them Erdogan had let the proverbial cat out of the bag with remarks that amounted to a “confession.” “What if I don’t want my kid to be conservative and religious?” decried well-known columnists like Hasan Cemal and Can Dundar. Undoubtedly Erdogan also provided fodder for the anti-Islamic European right wing with these remarks. [Daily News] Read more