Meet the Yeniden Anadolu ve Rumeli Müdafaa-i-Hukuk (Association for Defense of National Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia Again) magazine, one of the many "national" publications out and about in Turkey.This movement, which has grown up considerably in the last five years against the ruling party of Machiavellian conservatives, defends an unusual combination of Atatürk's principles, xenophobic nationalism and authoritarian leftism. Self-titled as a "monthly Kemalist publication," this issue blasts Turkey's Wahhabi-wannabes for looking up to the U.S. Hypocritical and ironic, ain't it? All is well until...
...you flip the cover and see a full-page, glossy color advert from Ülker, a Turkish food products conglomerate that is widely known to support religious conservatives. (They also recently bought Godiva.) Secular Kemalists supported by ads from Turkish wingnuts? Turkish wingnuts buying Godiva? Just two of the baffling contradictions that makes our brains hurt every day.
