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Let me open up a rather esoteric debate over #Erdogan’s discourse that “we are one nation who can’t read the tombstones of their grandparents.” He’s not wrong, and all goes back to #MustafaKemalAtaturk changing the alphabet overnight in 1920s. It was all about strategy +
+ First, background: there is a reason why most Westerners can’t pronounce (or consistently mispronounce) Turkish names. We use Latin alphabet like Westerners, but in our own way (plus extra letters). It wasn’t always the case, until 1920s, Ottomans/Turks uses Arabic alphabet +
+ Fun fact #1: When Asians/Arabs/anyone who uses a non-Latin alphabet write their names in English, they automatically translate their names from their alphabet to Latin alphabet. For example, محمد becomes Muhammad, Mohammed, or a version of it. Turks don’t transliterate +
