He'll Have 18+ Years to Think About Atatürk

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 19 March 2019)

//Ed. Note: thanks to TNT stringer 'Renan' in DC for the
Atatürk-40s jazz greats contribution.//


He can copy "The Nutuk" by hand a  few times and memorize
it. His time will be well-spent.

In Adana, Ali Balduz (30) shot a revolver at two busts of Atatürk
in school gardens and threw Molotov cocktails, as well.  He has been
sentenced to 18 years 8 months in jail (!).

On 11 December, Balduz came to the Cumhuriyet Elementary School
in Seyhan district of Adana city, shot at the Atatürk bust there and fled.,
Two days later, Balduz fired 3 shots at the Atatürk bust at Kanuni
Elementary School in the Dumlupınar neighborhood.  After this
incident, Balduz went home and called police with his cellphone,
telling them that "I heard gunshots in the garden of the Kanuni
Elementary School!  Someone fired at the Atatürk bust and fled!"

Police looked into the matter and based on Balduz's cellphone
records, which police checked because that was where the anonymous
tip had come from,  they went to his home.  Balduz's live-in girlfriend
Şükran T. (26) told police that "my husband may have committed
the attack. He's not right in the head." (!) 

As a consequence, Balduz was arrested and tried.  The verdict
reads as follows: "although not a member of a terrorist organization,
he committed a crime on one's behalf, possessed or exchanged
dangerous material, and violated the law against breaking or
damaging a statue, bust, monument or tomb representing Atatürk.
He is hereby sentenced to 18 years and 8 months in prison."


Jazz artists surrounded a wooden bust of Atatürk at the
Turkish Embassy in Washington DC in the 1940s.