Postcard from Istanbul
CHRISTMAS is coming, and in Istanbul’s Fatih district the fundamentalists are sharpening their knives.
Most Turks, being Muslims, don’t celebrate the birth of Christ; but we do mark new year with all the same trappings: trees, Santa, turkey (yes – we know) and general goodwill to all men. That is kryptonite for our hardcore Islamists, a pesky minority who are virulently anti-fun.
Our Santaphobes are members of the tarikatlar – Islamic cults outlawed by Kemal Atatürk when he founded our secular nation state in 1923. They made a comeback under Islamising president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been in power now for just 22 years and is linked to the Naqshbandi, a powerful tarikat. In parts of Istanbul and inner Anatolia the tarikatlar are now highly visible and politically powerful.