dublinka

I just read an interesting story on Eurozine, discussing one of the players at the center of current Turkish unrest, Recep Tayyip Erodgan. It appears Erodgan was jailed in 1997 for reading a poem by Gökalp which incited hatred. The original poem it seems, did not have the lines that Erdogan recited and was jailed for: "The minarets are bayonets, the domes helmets, the mosques our barracks, the believers our soldiers."

Instead, Gökalp's "Soldier's Prayer's" first stanza translates as follows:

Holding my rifle in my hand, keeping my faith in my heart I wish two things: The faith and the homeland My home is the army, my sovereign is the Sultan Strengthen my Sultan, Almighty Give him long life, Almighty Our journey is our victory, the end is martrydom..

The poem Erdogan recited went as follows:

The minarets are our bayonets; the domes are our helmets Mosques are our barracks, the believers are soldiers This holy army guards my religion Almighty Our journey is our destiny, the end is martyrdom..

The problem with all this is of course that if you jail a man for speaking his mind, irrespective of how distasteful you might find it, he might, as fearful Turkish secularists are now speculating, some day gain power and potentially feel equally free to ban you from speaking your mind, etc.