TURKEY: Erdogan 'Islamizing' Turkish Airlines

(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, FEBRUARY 14 - A plan by flag-carrier Turkish Airlines to lengthen female flight attendants' skirts to well below the knee has sparked protests from secular society, and even a congressional inquiry.

Secular opposition leader Kemal Kilicadroglu, who has long been accusing Islamic nationalist Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan of plotting to ''Islamize'' the country and indeed its flag-carrier airline, which recently also banned alcohol on domestic flights, had his deputy, Umut Oran, ask in parliament whether Turkish Airlines is acting on Erdogan's direct orders.

Recently leaked photos of designer Dilek Hanif's new, unflattering flight attendant uniforms - hemlines 15 cms below the knee, ''Islamic'' raincoats to the ankles in Ottoman-style red and blue fabrics, fez-like hats - have sparked a wave of protest on social media and among the country's secular, European components. ''They look like Kuwaiti or Saudi Arabian airlines,'' lamented designer Vural Gokcayli. ''They should reflect Turkey, and that's not what Turkey is like.'' The new uniforms, said Kilicdaroglu, ''damage the image of Turkey'', a country that has been a experiencing a 10-year economic boom, and which is striving to present itself as a bridge between Europe and Asia, West and East.