Turkish "Celebration" Today

Seven dozen years ago today, Turkey became a republic, which the Persona Non Grata of this weblog lived to see.

Supposedly, everyone in Turkey is a republican. Hmm?!?

Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn wrote in the previous century:

Throughout the previous century, two empires had between them dominated Central Europe and the Near East: the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Once, every schoolchild was taught that breaking up these empires was "a good thing." We are now painfully aware how false that is.

Further:

The fall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy has often been mentioned in the same breath with the end of the Ottoman Empire. The analogy has weak points. The Ottoman Empire was by no means so cohesive; and unlike the Danubian Monarchy, it was outside Christendom. Still, there are indeed parallels-mostly in the aftermath. The big Armenian slaughter, for example, took place not under the Ottoman Empire, but under the "democratic" Young Turks, whose motto was Unity and Progress. Under the empire, civil-service careers in Turkey were open to Christians and Jews; under the democratic successors those doors were closed, and the Greeks were expelled.