Leaders of Muslim and Christian countries celebrated the wedding of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's daughter, a gathering that the Turkish premier show-
cased as a bridge between the West and the Islamic world.
Esra Erdogan married Berat Albayrak, the son of Turkish journalist Sadik Albayrak, amid tight security in downtown Istanbul.
PHOTO: EPA
Thousands of guests attended the ceremony on Sunday, including Jordan's King Abdullah II, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Greek Premier Costas Caramanlis and Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase.
The wedding came as Turkey is pressing to become the first mostly Muslim member of the EU. Erdogan pointed to the wedding celebration as an example of Turkey as a crossroads between the East and the West.
"The people at this ceremony reflect this country: They're from East and West, with their heads covered and uncovered," private TV station NTV quoted Prime Minister Erdogan as saying at the close of the ceremony. "Our guests are the same way. Two are from the East and two from the West."
NTV earlier quoted Erdogan as describing his daughter's wedding as "a meeting of civilizations."
Erdogan's government, which has Islamic roots, has made Tur-key's bid to join the EU its top priority and the government often promotes the country as a bridge between the West and the Islamic world.
Many Turks, however, fear the EU may exclude Turkey because it is overwhelmingly Muslim.
The four foreign leaders -- two Christian and two Muslim -- served as witnesses at the secular ceremony. In Turkey, only secular marriages are legally accepted.
Ersa Erdogan studied in the US at Indiana University because she wears a headscarf which is banned at universities in this staunchly secular country. The bride's full white gown included a headscarf that glittered with sequins.
Many Turkish Islamists have pushed for EU membership in the hopes that EU laws might be more accepting of Islamic symbols such as the headscarf, which Turkish secularists see as a challenge to the secular state.
Caramanlis' attendance was another sign of improved relations between Turkey and Greece -- traditional rivals that came to the brink of war three times after 1974.
"This is something I couldn't have even dreamed a few years ago," NTV quoted Caramanlis as saying. "This shows that we're doing something right: that a Greek prime minister is a witness at the wedding of a Turkish prime minister's daughter."
The wedding took place amid extremely high security after four suicide bombings in Istanbul last November killed more than 60 people. The attacks were blamed on al-Qaeda.
Some 5,000 police, including snipers, were on duty for the wedding and guests were searched as they entered the site. Nearby streets were closed to traffic and police searched passing cars.
‘EYE FOR AN EYE’: Two of the men were shot by a male relative of the victims, whose families turned down the opportunity to offer them amnesty, the Supreme Court said Four men were yesterday publicly executed in Afghanistan, the Supreme Court said, the highest number of executions to be carried out in one day since the Taliban’s return to power. The executions in three separate provinces brought to 10 the number of men publicly put to death since 2021, according to an Agence France-Presse tally. Public executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001, with most of them carried out publicly in sports stadiums. Two men were shot around six or seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the center
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is leaning into his banking background as his country fights a trade war with the US, but his financial ties have also made him a target for conspiracy theories. Incorporating tropes familiar to followers of the far-right QAnon movement, conspiratorial social media posts about the Liberal leader have surged ahead of the country’s April 28 election. Posts range from false claims he recited a “satanic chant” at a campaign event to artificial intelligence (AI)-generated images of him in a pool with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “He’s the ideal person to be targeted here, for sure, due to
DISPUTE: Beijing seeks global support against Trump’s tariffs, but many governments remain hesitant to align, including India, ASEAN countries and Australia China is reaching out to other nations as the US layers on more tariffs, in what appears to be an attempt by Beijing to form a united front to compel Washington to retreat. Days into the effort, it is meeting only partial success from countries unwilling to ally with the main target of US President Donald Trump’s trade war. Facing the cratering of global markets, Trump on Wednesday backed off his tariffs on most nations for 90 days, saying countries were lining up to negotiate more favorable conditions. China has refused to seek talks, saying the US was insincere and that it
RSS