Erdoğan's son criticizes Turkey's intellectuals, calls on country to support his father

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's son Bilal Erdoğan publicly criticized the country's intellectuals as outdated in comparison to their European counterparts. He also called on the country to support the president and Turkey's international military operations.

“Unfortunately our 20^th century intellectuals weren't able to follow the world and they missed out. How did they miss out? When the Young Turks went to Europe for education, to France in particular, they were influenced by the positivist trends," Bilal Erdoğan said.

"They returned to Turkey after adopting a worldview that slanders religion, perceives it in a bad way and that adopts a lifestyle based on the rivalry and quarrel between God and Allah," he added.

Saying that Europe has overcome that positivism, Erdoğan noted that Turkey's intellectuals couldn't save themselves from positivism for 100-150 years.

"The fact that our intellectuals have been unable to follow the world and that our country is continually following the agendas of other countries resulted in us falling behind,” Erdoğan said, adding that that one could not even count ten individual intellectuals in Turkey today.

“Who of us are giving motivation and sending messages to young people for their future? Our president is going full force right before our eyes. Regarding the struggle in Libya, in the Eastern Mediterranean and in Syria, he is meeting with the biggest actors from around the world and we need to strongly support him,” he also said.