North London Turkish boy AMA

First of all wait so do you need help with anything?
Second of all congratulations

Because most people come here for advice or something that can be argued.
Good luck in uni

Which ends are these

Enfield / Palm. Green ?

How many times have you been stabbed

Turkish food is delicious.
What's your fave dish?

Baklava, it’s a dessert made with pastry and syrup and nuts. It’s really unhealthy though.

Opinions on progressive reforms by Ataturk vs Erdogan now?

I’m not an expert on the politics of turkey but I do know about the history and culture so I’ll give it a try. Obviously turkey has a tradition of secularism that other muslim majority countries don’t, and i feel that it is deeply ingrained in Turkish society to the point where even if erdogan wants to turn Turkey into Saudi Arabia with sharia law he won’t be able to since no one will be there to support it or enforce it. Obviously most Turks are religious Muslims but even the most religious ones don’t want to see it becoming a theocratic state- they, like most Christians in the US, just feel that they have been discriminated against in the past and want to have more influence. Erdogan didn’t even do that well in the elections when you consider that the liberals in turkey are split into a bunch of parties and he basically owns the right wing. So I’m not that worried for the future, this is a short term problem like Trump. I’m not worried that Turks are becoming more religious either, and to me it definitively seems that they are, because the type of Islam they follow is more moderate, they are just praying more and attending mosque more.

Erdogan has ruined press freedom and especially after the coup he’s basically become very authoritarian. I think, like trump supporters in the us, his supporters love this since they feel the press are the elite and are against him and against Turkey. I get that his supporters have valid grievances and obviously not everything he has done is bad. The hijab ban was quite ridiculous and he was right to remove it. And I’m glad that he took in many Syrian refugees and that turkey’s influence in the Muslim world is growing. But the damage he’s doing to Turkey’s institutions is unforgivable.

To be honest I know many, many people who support him, including a lot of my uncles and aunts but you’ll struggle to find any young and/or educated people who like him, just like for Trump. I think he has a huge support among Turks in Europe, including the UK, because most Turks who immigrated were from poorer backgrounds.

In concussion, I’d like to see Erodgan defeated soon and see Turkey retain its culture and moderate Islamic values and find some sort of middle ground where we protect all religious freedoms but keep the state secular. I don’t turkey to be like Saudi but I don’t want it to be like France either, where they follow a more extreme form of secularism which imo restricts religious freedom in public. I’d like to see the American style of secularism adopted, where people including politicians are free to express their religious beliefs and people are free to wear what they want in public but the state doesn’t impose any religion on anyone.

Why don’t you want Turkey to have Sharia or be an Islamic country? If you’re muslim then why don’t you believe in the Islamic laws

Baklava, it’s a dessert made with pastry and syrup and nuts. It’s really unhealthy though.