CENTRAL NEWS
Inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests, where statues of slave traders and confederates were vandalized or removed from public spaces following the killing of George Floyd, a US protester attached a sign to Ataturk’s statue near the Turkish embassy last week which read: “Yes, I am guilty of crimes against humanity”.
Ataturk, who served as a general in the Ottoman Empire, is revered in Turkey as the founder and first president of the republic. He is also responsible for the genocide committed against Kurds, Armenians and Greeks, as well as the ‘Turkification’ policies imposed on the peoples of the region.
