Thread by @KumarSeshadri

#Erdogan has won the elections in #Turkey.

#Indian #liberals are dismayed because Erdogan is trying to #Islamize Turkey.

But this is a decision of the people of Turkey.

Erdogan has won through a democratic, free and fair election.

This is what the people of Turkey want.

(1/)

If you claim to love #Democracy, that is, the will of the people, then you should be happy with this result.

Erdogan is a #Democrat. He is not #Liberal. He converted the #HagiaSophia into a mosque.

But #Democracy has NOTHING TO DO with #Liberalism, and vice versa.

(2/)

#Ataturk was a #Liberal in every sense of the word. He abolished the #Caliphate, closed down #Madarsa s, changed the language of the country from #Arabic to #Turkish, banned the #Fez cap, banned the #Sufi and #Dervish orders, and promoted scientific thinking.

(3/)

But #Ataturk was not a #Democrat. He was a #Dictator, and ruled Turkey with an iron hand. Turkey had one party rule as long as he was alive. His reforms were not voted on by the people of Turkey.

Ataturk died in 1938. Turkey introduced multiparty democracy in 1945.

(4/)

Ataturk's party, the Republican People's Party (#CHP), was the only political party from the time he took power until after his death, in 1945.

In 1946, democratic elections were held for the first time in modern Turkey. The CHP won, but lost the next election, in 1950.

(5/)

Just as #India has, today, (by a majority) rejected #Nehruvian secularism, #Turks have rejected #Kemalism.

#Erdogan is a democratically elected leader of Turkey, just as #Modi is a democratically elected leader of #India.

So, don't confuse #Democracy
with #Secularism.

(6/)

You will never get both.

(7/)

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