Religious beliefs and practices used to be private

The year was 1969; the incident I am going to tell happened that year during the beginning of an election campaign. Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Ali İhsan Göğüş paid a visit to party chair İsmet İnönü at his home and presented the candidate list to him that was to be handed over to the election council. Two journalists were accompanying him.

While İnönü was going through the lists, the journalist was focused on a "God's will be done" sign hanging on the wall. 

With a journalist's instinct, he signaled to the photo journalist Hüseyin Ezer right there. He asked him to shoot İnönü, known to be a staunch secularist, under that sign. 

That photograph was in daily Milliyet the next day. 

It was still morning hours when İnönü called the two journalists to the Pembe Köşk (Pink Villa), scolding them, "What right do you have to disclose my privacy; to publicize my inner world?" 

While these two journalists left the mansion with their heads bowed, İnönü's daughter Özden Toker later explained: "In the large dining table at our house, issues of the country would be discussed. There would also be iftar tables set. Prayers would also be said at home. But we would never publicize any of it." 

My source of the above is a column written by Can Dündar. The journalist that visited İnönü's house that evening was Mete Akyol. 

Our senior colleague Mete Akyol died Nov. 3 at the age of 81. 

His last photo that was printed in the papers was taken 11 months ago on Dec. 2, 2015. 

He was at the "democracy watch" in front of the Silivri Prison, near Istanbul, while Can Dündar was under arrest inside the walls. 

That day, he said: "Everybody has an opinion and you evaluate it accordingly. This is...