"What a Freshly Discovered Einstein Letter Says About Turkey Today
By Arnold Reisman
On October 29, 2006 Turkey celebrated the 83rd anniversary of its founding as a Republic. In its commemoration the Hürriyet, a high-circulation Turkish daily, carried a first page article “A REQUEST FROM THE GREAT GENIUS TO THE YOUNG REPUBLIC” by Murat Bardakçij. The request refers to a September 17, 1933 letter from Einstein to Prime Minister İsmet İnönü. In his article, Bardakçij juxtaposed Turkey’s current body politic and its preoccupations with those prevalent during the early ideological Republican years. “Now, here is the difference between the Turkey of the time when the Republican regime was only 10 years old and the Turkish Republic now aged 83. The first one is a young state with great promise for the future from which Einstein requests jobs for his friends; the other is where the daily agenda is shaped only by discussions about parks restricted to women, or whether shaking women’s hand is sinful or not....”"
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