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VengefulnessVengefulnessPosted Dec 3, 2006 4:13 UTC (Sun) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322)In reply to: Kurdish Ubuntu under investigation in Turkey by kazmakurek Parent article: Kurdish Ubuntu under investigation in Turkey
Ataturk had some great ideas and made some very positive changes, but a natural consequence of many of his reforms was to provoke envy and vengefulness on the part of the old guard (including the religious establishment) and ethnic minorities. Under Ataturk, the rump of Turkey which was left after the carve-up by the victorious powers in WWI struck back and reclaimed territory which was inhabited by people who weren't quite as completely Turkish as the Republic would have liked. Greek speakers were forced to emigrate to the Kingdom of Greece and surviving Christian Armenians to the Democratic Republic of Armenia, while Kurds and Muslim Armenians were told that they were now Turkish citizens and would therefore have to become Turks.
A pleasant-enough sounding idea, but forced migration, denigration of religious traditions and suppression of linguistic identity predictably led to suffering, vengefulness and bloody conflict. Ataturk was no saint.
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