Ankara, Turkey
The Turkish legislature voted this week to send troops to Lebanon, giving the U.N. peacekeeping force there a needed infusion of Muslims. The U.N. has been urging Muslim countries to contribute so that the force will not be seen as anti-Islamic. But the move was extremely unpopular among Turks. Some 10,000 people marched through the capital, Ankara, ahead of the vote, carrying banners that read, “We won’t be the soldiers of the United States and Israel” and “Mehmet’s blood is not for sale.” Turks generally refer to soldiers as “Mehmet,” a common Turkish name.
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