Turkey

🇹🇷Abdullah Öcalan

Literature

b. 1949

"Under the flag of 'superior Turkey identity' the entire society was sworn to an aggressive nationalism."

"Some beautiful paths can't be discovered without getting lost."

🇹🇷Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Politics

b. 1954

"There exists an unmistakable demand in the Middle East and in the wider Muslim world for democratization."

🇹🇷İsmail Enver

Military

1881–1922

"Human and plague bacteria can't be friends.."

🇹🇷Kenan Evren

Military

1917–2015

"Many axes are being kept under cover, waiting in ambush, ready to pounce, when we resign. Have no worries. We will deliver this homeland to you perfectly clean, as it was in Atatürk's time."

🇹🇷Adnan Oktar

Religion

b. 1956

"Christian and Jewish people all love Allah. Almighty Allah entrusted them to us. And He entrusted us to them. That is because we are all friends of Allah. We will approach them all with love and compassion."

🇹🇷Turgut Özal

Politics

1927–1993

"In all these countries, too many people have too little hope."

🇹🇷Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Politics

1881–1938

"Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women."

🇹🇷Fethullah Gülen

Literature

Sufism

1941–2024

"Erdogan’s accusation is no surprise, not for what it says about me but rather for what it reveals about his systematic and dangerous drive toward one-man rule."

🇹🇷Genco Gulan

Art

b. 1969

"Istanbul these days has as much dynamism as New York."

🇹🇷Muharrem İnce

Politics

b. 1964

"At a rally in Istanbul, when talking about Erdoğan."

🇹🇷Selahattin Demirtaş

Politics

b. 1973

"Only the democratic struggle of the people for their own freedom will free Turkey from authoritarianism and fear and free itss — the judiciary and the press — from tutelary control by the government."

🇹🇷Tarkan

Music

b. 1972

"Dancing and singing were always like games to me. I sang constantly."

🇹🇷Mehmed Talat

Politics

1874–1921

"What on earth do you want? The question is settled. There are no more Armenians."

"Cihan Dizdaroğlu's profile at The Conversation"

🇹🇷Hulusi Akar

Politics

b. 1952

"Turkey's goal is to contribute to the formation of a Libya that has ensured its territorial integrity and political unity, and lives in peace, tranquility and stability,"

🇹🇷Mustafa Şentop

Politics

b. 1968

"We may not be the richest country in the world, but we are proud to be the most generous in the world"

🇹🇷Ömer Çelik

Politics

b. 1968

"We stand behind the resolutions of the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly on Palestine"

🇹🇷Ekrem İmamoğlu

Politics

b. 1971

"There are some parts of Turkey where the refugees outnumber the actual residents. No country in the world would accept this and nor should they."

🇹🇷Amberin Zaman

Journalism

b. 2000

"Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party came to power 18 years ago pledging "" for torture. For a while, it seemed sincere. Such hopes now lie in tatters."

🇹🇷Ataol Behramoğlu

Literature

b. 1942

"The poet should be responsible to the poem."

🇹🇷Zeki Müren

Music

1931–1996

"Three things I hate in life: Ria, lies and ungratefulness."

🇹🇷Ali Erbaş

Politics

b. 1961

"Our struggle continues against organizations, which are turned into terrorist organizations and are active in Islamic world. Seeing or showing them as representative of Islam disturbs us"

🇹🇷Ahmet Davutoğlu

Politics

b. 1959

"We will always side with the wrongdoers."

🇹🇷Devlet Bahçeli

Politics

b. 1948

"No one can remove Turkey from the Mediterranean. We aren't giving up a single stone of our 780,000 square kilometers of land and we'll never give up a single drop of our 460,000 square kilometers of Blue Homeland."

"MP profile on the Grand National Assembly website"

🇹🇷Binali Yıldırım

Politics

b. 1955

"There is a serious trick and plan against our country. The imperial powers are seeking for a new exploitation,"

🇹🇷Orhan Pamuk

Literature

naturalism

b. 1952

"Happiness is holding someone in your arms and knowing you hold the whole world."

🇹🇷Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu

Politics

b. 1968

"It is not possible to give up our rights and interests in the Eastern Mediterranean just because sanctions will come or because the EU will criticize us,"