Mick Hartley

Politics and Culture

recent posts

email me

The Issue is Extremely Sensitive

Whoops.

Marie Arena, the education minister for Belgium’s French-speaking community in the Walloon region, made a request yesterday for a meeting with Turkey’s ambassador to Belgium in an apparent effort to explain the publishing of a book in which the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, is listed among the important homosexual and bisexual personalities of history.

Belgian sources on the same day emphasized that the Belgian government was by no means involved in the publishing of the book. “The issue is extremely sensitive, and Belgian officials have eventually noticed their mistake,” Yusuf Seki, press officer of the Turkish Embassy in Brussels, said yesterday, noting that following the embassy’s warning, the ministry had decided not to publish in the next edition of the book a list of “Famous homosexuals and bisexuals in history” in which Atatürk was included. He also said that Arena’s request for a meeting with Ambassador Fuat Tanlay has been accepted, without specifying an exact date.

Arena also sent a letter to the embassy in which she said her government had no intention of insulting Atatürk. Arena’s spokesperson, Jennifer Wilquot, speaking with Today’s Zaman, admitted that it was “a mistake” to put Atatürk’s name on the list.

(Via The Brussels Journal)

Posted in

3 responses to “The Issue is Extremely Sensitive”

  1. DaninVan Avatar
    DaninVan

    A “mistake” or ‘imprudent’? Inquiring minds need to know…

    Like

    Reply
  2. dearieme Avatar
    dearieme

    Let’s hope that “Must have a Camel” referred to cigarettes.

    Like

    Reply
  3. Noga Avatar
    Noga

    “she said her government had no intention of insulting Atatürk.”
    Recently, a conservative American commentator caused an uproar when she referred to a presidential candidate as a “Faggot”. Now, the education minister for Belgium a going through hoops in order to appease ruffled Turkish sensibilities about their legendary leader’s sexuality. There is an implied commonality of sentiment here between Ann Coulter and Turks: they both consider homosexuality as insult material.
    Would the Education minister feel the need to apologize if it was suggested in a book that Ataturk was a Jew? Isn’t this apology a de-facto collusion with the intolerance towards homosexuality that is so rampant in the Muslim world? Dignifying Turkish anti-gay sensibilities with a formal apology translates directly into empathy with those sensibilities.
    If it was a mistake, then an apology could be offered for misrepresenting historical truth. But it appears that the apology is offered not on the grounds that it was a factual mistake but on the grounds that it’s an offensive suggestion.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment