19 June 2012

Turkish Prime Minister Assaults Women's Rights

.... "It's becoming increasingly difficult to think and live the way one wishes in Turkey," says the world-famous pianist Fazil Say. "Turkey is getting more and more religious," says author Nedim Gürsel.

"This policy is leading the country toward totalitarianism," says sculptor Mehmet Aksoy, whose sculpture "The Statue of Humanity," dedicated to peace among Turks and Armenians, was torn down because the premier didn't like it.

The government is also settling a score with pianist Say. An avowed atheist, he had quoted a verse from a poem by the medieval Persian poet Omar Khayyam in a tweet: "You say wine will flow from its rivers. Is heaven a pub? You say two women per believer. Is heaven a brothel?" [Spiegel Online] Read more