Well, I just signed up to correct some mistakes in this topic.
Yes this is kind of nationalistic gesture but not the type of nationalism you understand. Turkey is really unique country in many ways. And nationalism, it’s not the one in USA. Yes, we have some true (!) racists here, those ones who discriminate people based on their ethnicities but when you talk about nationalism, it’s mostly based on being citizen of Turkish Republic. Yes, Too Sweet (lol it’s funny) is a far right gesture but this far right is not a racism. Let me explain with an example, when leader of Nationalist Movement in Turkey, Alparslan Türkeş, started to his struggle on his nationalistic ideas; his first fellows were the Kurds. He had more Kurds around him than Turks. Believe it or not. Because Turkish Nationalism are also based on religion, which is Islam. And Kurds are the most religious group in Turkey’s borders. For example, one of those nationalists’ famous slogans is “Rehber Kur’an, Hedef Turan” which means “The Guide is Holy Qur’an, The Goal is Turan” Turan is a type of Turkic-Islamic Union. So as you see, despite the existence of ethnic racists, this Turkish Nationalism is based on both being a citizen of Turkey and being a Muslim.
And one more thing for our friend who mentioned The Young Turks; no, they didn’t exist in 1930’s, they were a group during 19th century and father of Ittihat ve Terakki (Unity and Progress) Party, which influenced the founder of Modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. He was also a member of Ittihat ve Terakki.
Hope you all understand what is this gesture about and it’s not a fascist symbol, like Hitler’s salute. Still can offend someone due to being a far right gesture but you can see Armenians, Kurds throw up this gesture too.
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