As I wrote here just a few days ago: “Erdogan is now positioning himself as yet another Mehmet the Conqueror, using Hagia Sophia as his illustrious predecessor did to proclaim Islam’s victory over both Christianity and Ataturk’s secularism. And with the centerpiece of the caliphate now again secured, the caliphate itself is virtually certain to follow.”
Omer Celik, even though he is of the ruling party, and the Ankara bar association are fighting a rear-guard action. Turkish secularism is dead.
“Turkish magazine calls for revival of CALIPHATE amid Hagia Sophia conversion, gets slammed for peddling ‘unhealthy debate,'” RT, July 28, 2020:
A Turkish pro-Islam magazine is in hot water after bringing the cause of a caliphate back to life with the cover story of its latest issue. The Ankara bar association has accused it of calling for an insurrection.
The Turkish legal body filed a criminal complaint against Gercek Hayat magazine, asking prosecutors to investigate it. It alleged that the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Kemal Ozer, and columnist Abdurrahman Dilipak, have instigated hatred and called for an armed rebellion against the Turkish state.
At the center of the accusation is the latest issue of the magazine, published on Monday, which features a cover stating: “Get together for caliphate. If not now, when? If not you, who?” An interview with Dilipak, a veteran Turkish conservative journalist, is one of the lead stories in the edition….
Arguing for revival of a caliphate is a political hot-button topic in Turkey, so the Gercek Hayat publication was met with skepticism even from the conservative side. Spokesman for the ruling AK Party, Omer Celik, said the magazine was seeking “unhealthy polarization” by questioning Turkey’s founding principles.
Some outrage came even before the issue was published, and was based on a preview of the magazine’s cover tweeted by Dilipak. Prominent Turkish journalist Ismail Saymaz said on Sunday that Turkey was not a country “to be ruled by a handful of radicals,” and that the people behind the Gercek Hayat issue “are not even aware of what kind of fire they were playing with.”
Ozer, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, said critics of the story were misinterpreting it. “Our journal demands that the countries of Islam come together, just as Europe has come together and established a union, just as others have made similar ones. Our call has nothing to do with any country,” he said….