

TIL: Abdullah Gül
Though I find the predecesor before Gül even more interesting: Ahmet Necdet Sezer. Apparently he was the last secular president of Turkey. “During receptions at the presidential palace, Sezer refused to allow women wearing the headscarf to attend citing the laws on the separation of religion and state at the time; this resulted in the wives of Abdullah Gül and Erdoğan, Hayrünnisa Gül and Emine Erdoğan respectively, being barred from attendance. Erdoğan later said in public that he had ‘suffered a lot’ from Sezer.[3]” So he refused the wives of who would be his successors.
“During the 2014 presidential election, won by Erdoğan, Sezer openly refused to vote, citing the lack of a secularist candidate as his reason” Turkey has a strong secularist tradition and I really hope it returns sometime. Atatürk is still being celebrated, but do people still believe in his secular ideals?
Whethers its because fields and granaries are burnt down, or because crops and seeds are eaten due to food shortages, during war or other disasters, seeds and crops can get lost. You might think you could just import seeds from abroad, and of course you can, but the problem is that those seeds are not accustomed to your local conditions like climate, soil, pests, etc. Local seeds have a higher chance of a succesfull harvest.