Historical insanity: Aristotle the “Turk”!

A statue of the ancient philosopher restored in a Turkish city

UNESCO declared 2016 as the anniversary year of ancient Greek philosopher scientist, considered by many to be the father of reasoning and logic. Many symposia and events were held in honour of the great man and his legacy to human thought. But unperturbed by volumes of historical evidence pointing to Aristotle’s identity, Turkey says he was one of their forefathers! In a celebratory ceremony the Turkish local authorities of the ancient city of Assos (Berhamakale), in the district of Ayvacik have restored the statue of Aristotle as a symbol of the city. The restoration process started in 2015 and was completed recently, after a deputy of the Turkish assembly, named Muharrem Erkek, brought the matter to parliament. It should be noted that according to the historical theories put forward by the father of modern day Turkey, Mustafa Kemal, and later adopted by Turgut Ozal in the eighties, Aristotle, as all as a number of other ancient Greek philosophers were of Turkish origin. These theories go s far as to say that a 10th century Turkish-speaking philosopher named Uzgul el-Farabi et-Turki, who wrote many essays and works of Aristotle’s work with an Islamic eye, was Aristotle’s greatest “student”. Farabi spread the knowledge of “Aristo”, as the Turks call the Greek philosopher to the rest of Europe and the modern world.

This week‘s new events