Erdogan tries to rewrite history
Recep Tayyip Erdogan's recent decision to change the date commemorating the conquest of Istanbul from May 29 to May 30 seems to fall into a pattern of altering dates of public holidays to correspond with important political dates — in this case, the June 7 elections.
![ZIRAAT-ISLAMICLENDER/ERDOGAN Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan greets his supporters in front of a mosque after Friday prayers in Istanbul, Turkey, May 29, 2015. Erdogan said the launch of Ziraat Bank's Islamic business should help to attract new funds to Turkey and urged other state lenders to help to triple Islamic banking's share of the market by 2023. Islamic finance has developed slowly in Turkey, the world's eighth most populous Muslim nation, partly because of political sensitivities and the secular nature of its laws. However,](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2015/05/RTR4Y0PT.jpg/RTR4Y0PT.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=8vAK95Rh)
Scores of thick-mustached Istanbul municipality laborers dressed in historic Ottoman army uniforms, marching amid rush hour crowds in modern-day central Istanbul, some pulling replicas of 15th-century galleys by thick ropes, may not look out of place to certain eyes.
The re-enactment commemorates the May 29 holiday of the conquest of Istanbul.