Views of people from Turkey and Holland on statements made by Newsweek journalist Fareed Zakaria, Turkish president Abdullah Gül and prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the Dutch VPRO documentary ‘Turkije – Het Dilemma van de Democratie’: ‘Turkey – the dilemma of democracy’ that was broadcast on 8th of October. Daily at Sargasso from October 5th until October 12th, at 13.00h (Amsterdam time, 14.00h Istanbul time). This blogging project is part of the Dutch democracy week WijZijnDeBaas (WeAreTheBoss): the Dutch contribution to the International Week for Democracy. More information here.
if you end up with a situation where people forget that there are other, large minorities in the country, that feel differently than you and you try to impose your will on them, then, yes, you have De Toqueville’s problem of the tyranny of the majority and that tyranny is as bad for a minority as it were a dictatorship
Fareed Zakaria,
Newsweek journalist
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Emre Kizilkaya | The Istanbulian
turkish journalist, Hürriyet newspaper, blogger.
“Democracy does not have the right to destroy itself. It is not only about elections, but it is also about protecting the minorities and especially human rights. We should not forget that Adolf Hitler was a by-product of a democracy. Tyranny of the majority is as dangerous as a dictatorship, but most of the people generally tend to believe that Saddam Hussein was far more dangerous than George W. Bush or Vladimir Putin is”.
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Metin | Talk Turkey
blogger, Metin didn’t directly comment on the statements but contributed several related posts on his blog, this one is on ‘Save Islam from the Muslims’.