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Turkey

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This entry is about the country; for the bird, see Turkeys.
I immediately liked the people — brave, stoical, generous, hospitable and patriotic, if a little inclined to conspiracy theories. ~ Daniel Hannan
Turkey has a secular constitution. It's a democratic society where you have gender equality between men and women. It's a member of NATO and is in accession talks with the European Union. ~ Soner Cagaptay

Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), officially the Republic of Turkey and Türkiye, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwestern Asia and the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. The modern Republic of Turkey was formed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. It is a founding member of NATO and is a candidate for membership in the European Union. Its current head of state is President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Arranged alphabetically by author or source:
A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · Disputed · See also · External links

Quotes

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He is a weak ruler who needs religion to uphold his government; it is as if he would catch his people in a trap. My people are going to learn the principles of democracy, the dictates of truth and the teachings of science. Superstition must go. ~ Atatürk
Turks can be killed, but they can never be conquered. ~ Napoleon
Turkey and Cyprus in particular, while geologically Asian, possess elements of European culture and may be regarded as parts of Europe. ~ Encyclopædia Britannica
[The Ottoman Empire] whose sick body was not supported by a mild and regular diet, but by a powerful treatment, which continually exhausted it. ~ Montesquieu

Hereunder is the Student Oath that all Turkish students had to recite at the beginning of each schoolday until 2013. The original was written in 1933 by Reşit Galip, the Minister of Education at the time. It has been changed a few times since then, the version that follows is from 1997. "How happy is the one who says I am a Turk" (Ne mutlu Türküm diyene) is a quote from a speech by Atatürk. The references to Atatürk were not present in the original, they were added in 1972, by then the Turkish military had performed two coups (in 1960 and 1971), partly due to them fearing the country was veering away from Atatürk's ideals. (In the past, the Turkish military traditionally viewed itself as a guardian of Atatürk's legacy.)

  • I am a Turk, honest and hardworking.
    My principle is to protect the younger, to respect the elder, to love my homeland and my nation more than myself.
    My ideal is to rise, to progress.
    O Great Atatürk!
    On the path that you have paved, I swear to walk incessantly toward the aims that you have set.
    Let my existence be a gift to the Turkish existence.

    How happy is the one who says "I am a Turk!"

    Original:
    Türk'üm, doğruyum, çalışkanım,
    İlkem: küçüklerimi korumak, büyüklerimi saymak, yurdumu, milletimi özümden çok sevmektir.
    Ülküm: yükselmek, ileri gitmektir.
    Ey Büyük Atatürk!
    Açtığın yolda, gösterdiğin hedefe durmadan yürüyeceğime ant içerim.
    Varlığım Türk varlığına armağan olsun.

    Ne mutlu Türk'üm diyene!

Quotes about

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A

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  • …O Turkish child of future generations! As you see, even under these circumstances and conditions, it is your duty to save the Turkish Independence and the Republic! The strength that you will need is present in the noble blood which flows in your veins!
  • The Republic of Turkey cannot be a country of sheikhs, dervishes, and disciples. The truest, most real order is the order of civilisation.
  • ... He is a weak ruler who needs religion to uphold his government; it is as if he would catch his people in a trap. My people are going to learn the principles of democracy, the dictates of truth and the teachings of science. Superstition must go. Let them worship as they will; every man can follow his own conscience, provided it does not interfere with sane reason or bid him against the liberty of his fellow-men.
    • Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as quoted in Atatürk: The Biography of the founder of Modern Turkey, by Andrew Mango; "In a book published in 1928, Grace Ellison quotes [Atatürk], presumably in 1926-27", Grace Ellison Turkey Today (London: Hutchinson, 1928)

B

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C

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D

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E

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F

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G

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H

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I

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  • [Türkiye] does not seem to have a system for supporting refugees, not even by placing them in temporary camps as other countries do. This puts the [Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light] group’s members in the impossible situation of either ending up homeless on the streets [and isolated from each other], or risk becoming illegal and being deported back to their countries of origin.
    • Massimo Introvigne and Rosita Šorytė, "Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light: A New Humanitarian Crisis in Türkiye", Bitter Winter (July 17, 2024)
    • Curator's Note: It would be unsurprising, if Türkiye will not only never have such a system that Mr. Introvigne and Rosita Šorytė describe, but also continue regarding the messages by the United Nations and Mr. Introvigne as either idiotic, or heretical, or both. Is Türkiye claiming, along with all the Sunni and Shia countries, that nobody of any ethnoreligious background should care, or even pretend to care, for the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light?

J

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K

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  • We are ever mindful of the vital role which the Turkish nation has played and continues to play in the NATO defensive shield. We in America are proud to be allied with the Turkish people in a determined effort to bring peace and prosperity to all mankind. Each of our nations can take much pride in the success we have achieved in this great undertaking since 1947. Of great interest to the American people is the progress which Turkey has made in developing its economy. The historical bonds of friendship which unite our nations have been strengthened by President Truman's historic decision, and I am confident that, in the future, these ties will grow ever stronger.
  • Understand this: Turkey is a country whose warnings should be taken seriously and listened to. Don't test Turkey's patience. Try to win its friendship.

L

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R

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S

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  • [I]n Germany we are giving work to two million people from Turkey.
  • “…the planet from which the little prince came is the asteroid known as B-612. This asteroid has only once been seen through a telescope. That was by a Turkish astronomer, in 1909. On making his discovery, the astronomer had presented it to the International Astronomical Congress, in a great demonstration. But he was in Turkish costume, and so nobody would believe what he said. …Fortunately, however, for the reputation of Asteroid B-612, a Turkish dictator made a law that his subjects, under pain of death, should change to European costume. So in 1920 the astronomer gave his demonstration all over again, dressed with impressive style and elegance. And this time everybody accepted his report.”
    • The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (translated by Katherine Woods), Piccolo Books in association with Heinemann, Pan Books, London, 1974 (first 1945). Quoted in Talageri, S. (2000). The Rigveda: A historical analysis. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.

U

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V

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  • I hate calumny so much that I do not want even to impute foolishness to the Turks, although I detest them as tyrants over women and enemies of the arts.

W

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  • We became acquainted we found the people, whether Christian or Turkish, prevailingly of a friendly, kindly, progressive type, as is often the case with simple-minded people in times of peace.
    • George Edward White (1940). Adventuring with Anatolia College. Herald-Register. pp. p. 18. 
  • I always liked the common Turkish people unless they were stirred to passion by militarists.
    • George Edward White (1940). Adventuring with Anatolia College. Herald-Register. pp. p. 18. 
  • In the College two classes were called preparatory, while four bore the ordinary college class names. The schools from which our students came did not carry them far. When Americans first came to Turkey, hardly any vernacular was taught anywhere. Instruction was in classic tongues and religious lore. But our students for the most part came with a purpose in modern life. They wanted to attain a worth-while and useful manhood and they felt that the College could give them a start.
    • George Edward White (1940). Adventuring with Anatolia College. Herald-Register. pp. p. 19. 
  • One student told me in after years that when he came to Marsovan [a city in Turkey] he was really illiterate, that is, he could not fairly read his native tongue, or any other. But he had no chance of learning more in his native village. For a number of months he was cow-boy for an American family, and eagerly studying too.
    • George Edward White (1940). Adventuring with Anatolia College. Herald-Register. pp. p. 19. 
  • Another time I was riding alone with a Circassian, and in the talk of man to man in such companionship, asked him a bit about his occupation and his affairs. "Sometimes I get a traveller to escort, like you", he replied, "and then I take him, but my regular business is smuggling tobacco. Every man in our village has a regular job, some are smugglers, some are farmers, and some are thieves". I asked him about his chance of getting caught, and he promptly said, "There are two kinds of smugglers; one kind gets caught and one kind doesn't get caught", and he added a pious expression of gratitude to the good Lord that he never had been put to shame yet. We knew very well that the mounted police of Anatolia were largely recruited from among the robbers and smugglers of the mountain roads. One of the most effective ways of securing official employment, and who knows what promotion later, was to acquire the reputation of a daring hold-up man on the mountains."
    • George Edward White (1940). Adventuring with Anatolia College. Herald-Register. pp. p. 25. 

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

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Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 823.
  • The unspeakable Turk should be immediately struck out of the question, and the country be left to honest European guidance.
    • Thomas Carlyle, letter to a meeting at St. James Hall, London, 1876. See also his article on 'Das Niebelungen Lied in Westminster Review. 1831. No. 29. Also his Letter to George Howard, Nov. 24, 1876.
  • [Turks] one and all, bag and baggage, shall I hope clear out from the province they have desolated and profaned.
  • The Lofty Gate of the Royal Tent.
    • Mahomet II. It was translated "La Porte Sublima" by the Italians. See E. S. Creasy, History of the Ottoman Turks, p. 96, ed. 1877.
  • [The Ottoman Empire] whose sick body was not supported by a mild and regular diet, but by a powerful treatment, which continually exhausted it.
  • We have on our hands a sick man,—a very sick man. [The sick man of Europe, the Turk.]
    • Nicholas I, of Russia. Conversation with Sir George Hamilton Seymour. (1853). See Blue Book (1854).
  • [The Ottoman Empire] has the body of a sick old man, who tried to appear healthy, although his end was near.
    • Sir Thomas Roe, Ambassador to Constantinople. See Buchanan, Letter, 375.
  • Your Majesty may think me an impatient sick man, and that the Turks are even sicker.
    • Voltaire to Catherine II. In the Rundschau (April, 1878).


Disputed

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  • For nearly five hundred years, these rules and theories of an Arab Shaikh and the interpretations of generations of lazy and good-for-nothing priests have decided the civil and criminal law of Turkey. They have decided the form of the Constitution, the details of the lives of each Turk, his food, his hours of rising and sleeping the shape of his clothes, the routine of the midwife who produced his children, what he learned in his schools, his customs, his thoughts-even his most intimate habits. Islam – this theology of an immoral Arab – is a dead thing. Possibly it might have suited tribes in the desert. It is no good for modern, progressive state. God’s revelation! There is no God! These are only the chains by which the priests and bad rulers bound the people down. A ruler who needs religion is a weakling. No weaklings should rule.
    • Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as quoted in Grey Wolf: Mustafa Kemal – An intimate study of a dictator (1932) by Harold Courtenay Armstrong, pp. 199-200

See also

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