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SABRE-RATTLING BREAKS OUT AFTER CADETS SWEAR OATH TO ATATÜRK
Deep Dive May 29, 2026

SABRE-RATTLING BREAKS OUT AFTER CADETS SWEAR OATH TO ATATÜRK

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a U-turn about the oath sworn by cadets graduating from a military academy in which they drew their swords and promised to be the soldiers of Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in protecting secularism in the country.  “Against whom are you drawing these swords?” asked Erdogan eight days after the incident, joining the chorus that associated the unofficial oath with the military tutelage that Turkey suffered in the past. Then, arguing that the new graduates had fallen into a trap set by others, he told a workshop arranged for religious high school graduates that he would fire those who had influenced the cadets.

Editorial Team
BOYKOT
Word of the Week Apr 4, 2025

BOYKOT

The word of the week is—surprise, surprise—“boycott.” This word has its roots in Ireland but was readily adopted by the Ottoman Empire as “boykotaj” in the early 20th century. It all began with a stubborn man and a group of angry farmers. Charles Boycott, the eponymous land agent in 19th-century Ireland, refused to lower rents. In return, local tenants refused to acknowledge his existence—no violence, no slogans—just pure, icy silence. Labourers wouldn’t work his land, shopkeepers wouldn’t serve him, even the postman changed routes in what was the forefather of today’s cancel culture. Boycott became so isolated that his name turned into a verb.

Nazlan Ertan