Professor Nilufer Gole is an internationally acclaimed sociologist and one of the world’s leading experts on the challenging issue of “Islam and modernity.” She was recently decorated with France’s highly prestigious Legion d'Honneur award. At the ceremony for the occasion in Paris, her mentor, the great sociologist Alain Touraine, made a memorable speech praising her contribution to contemporary thinking.
The renowned academic of Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociale of Paris is spending her summer vacation in her homeland od Turkey, and at a dinner table a few days ago offered her observations on the upcoming presidential elections. She said, “Let’s see the full half of the glass. Having professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and Selahattin Demirtas as two contenders against Mr. [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, the likeliest winner of the race, is a great gain for Turkey and for the maturity of Turkey’s democracy. We can be much more hopeful for the future of the country than we had been earlier. We have to preserve a certain dose of optimism for the future, despite it has been made bleak by Erdogan's posture.”
