The Problem With Germany

Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats suffered major losses in state elections in Germany. That's certainly a positive sign for the Social Democrats before the upcoming general elections. As soon as possible should they prove that the 20th century is over and there is no place for narrowminded politicians like Merkel in the 21st century.

The rise of Die Linke is also important. For Germany, the real danger is the extreme right, not the left. While the neo-Nazis get stronger and stronger (with a domino effect in neighboring countries), thanks to the policies of Merkel's closet-racist allies, only the leftist youth are brave enough to confront them in the streets, when it's needed to protect innocent citizens, like Turkish-German pensioners or kids.

So yes, the first red-red coalition in a western German state, it sounds good... And it's no surprise that Merkel was fear-mongering to scare German voters who would like to try Die Linke this time and she failed miserably.

A few days ago, a couple of Turkish-German friends told me that they went to a cinema in Berlin to watch Quentin Tarantino's latest movie, Inglorious Basterds. They realized that they were the only people who were laughing during funny scenes. Many indigenous Germans, so the majority of the audience, seemed like they were protesting the movie, as if it was not against the Nazis, but against the German nation as a whole. Or maybe several of them were Nazi sympathizers, who knows?

It may be a wronged observation or a minor detail in German society, but it still tells something about today's Germany. The problem is the sociopolitical climate in this country, which is being shaped by the economic situation. Merkel et al, like Sarkozian politicians in other parts of Western/Central Europe, get their countries corrote gradually, abusing the current conjuncture. Their blindfolded conversatism and disguised xenophobia -which may indeed transform into a full-scale fascism one day- doesn't fit in the new world order and it's doomed to be a failure soon or late. However, the truely conservative right -with a European vision- will always be there.

I write this stuff, because I'm interested in everything that happens in Germany. I see Germany as a crucial country/state for the future of the world, like Turkey. After all, only real friends really care about each other.

Victim's Democracy

In the post-Cold War age, there are several variables but only two constants in politics:

1) The decisive victory of the liberal democracy made everyone accept its superiority. Now, even the most radical anti-democrats present themselves as democrats. See the neo-Nazis in Germany or the Islamists in Iran...

2) Everybody is a victim. Presenting yourself as a victimized person (or group) is supposed to give you a political edge over others who are not victimized enough. See US President Barack Obama, who tells about his grandmother who were victimized by the US health system which he would reform.

I am well aware of these political trends, so I always doubt when somebody presents himself as a victim. I generally see that real victims never promote themselves and they rarely raise their voices.

There is a hyper-inflation on the victim market of today's Turkey. Its reason is simple: The cake is big and delicious. As loud as you can shout will you get as big portion as possible. The Islamist government and the Kurdish nationalists fight to seize the democratic, secular and unitary Turkish state. The Kurdish Gambit is just a round in this fight.

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I could even welcome this fight in our democracy, but when terrorism is included, I emotionally become a hawk. Because I know several families whose sons and daughters were killed by PKK, either as civilians or soldiers. There are thousands of people in Turkey who experienced -and keep experiencing- this tragedy. They are the real victims and you can't talk about democracy with them unless PKK is totally beaten.

We should be realistic: The majority of the Turkish public didn't realize yet, but the AKP government has started a direct dialogue with terrorists, according to the Turkish state, as well as the US and the EU.

These terrorists are also represented in the Turkish parliament, as DTP. At first, I was hopeful about DTP. I was expecting them to set itself free from Kurdish nationalism and condemn PKK as a terrorist organization, while still remaining as the popular choice of the Kurds. They couldn't. They are getting even worse.

Emine Ayna, the Vice-Chairman of DTP, participated in the ceremony in Siirt to commemorate the 25th anniversary of PKK's first attack. "We can't say that on 15th August, 1984, the violence started. Because the violence was there since the first day of the Turkish Republic. PKK had shot the first bullet to stop the denial and the destruction of the Kurds, for peace and equality," she said.

At the same time, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan claims that he never hold a gun. He tells this lie to gain a stronger position in the Kurdish Gambit. The same day, the website of the PKK starts to delete all photos of Ocalan with guns. They forgot to delete the following one:

In any democracy, these evidences are enough to ban DTP. Its link with PKK, a terror organization without any doubt in the international community, is proven unquestionably in recent months. I don't care about the political climate, social conditions, etc. I'm talking about lawful justice here.

The justice that they have in Spain, for instance. Why Batasuna and its successors were banned? And why the Spanish police did harshly disperse a Basque protest in San Sebastian just a few days ago even though the protestors were not visibly supporting ETA (below)...

Because they are separatists and there are enough evidence to believe that they support ETA, which keeps exploding bombs in civilian areas and shoot at the security personnel, although it can't kill as many people as PKK. And because the Spanish government knows that you can't explain the terror victims why you talk to active terrorists, whether they are in the mountains or in the parliament.

PS: I'm off for two-weeks-long vacation. Tonight, I'll be flying to Adana, a southern city where PKK killed a policeman just a couple of days ago, in transit to my destinations in Mediterranean.

Erdogan's Kurdish Gambit

At the top of Turkey's agenda, there is the Kurdish Gambit.

The AKP government talks about a broad initiative to end the Kurdish problem, which has been materialized during the 25-years-old PKK terrorism.

Gambit is the best word to translate the Turkish equivalent "acilim" in this sense. It actually is a chess tactic in which a piece is sacrificed to gain an advantage. In today's Turkey, the AKP government wants to sacrifice the already-sacrificed, the victims of terrorism, to gain a political advantage in southeastern Turkey where the populution is mainly Kurdish, hoping that it will get them more votes in next general elections.

I believe that Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan is comfortable enough to play his last game bravely, even crazily. As he previously announced that he would run for the last time in the next elections, he wouldn't be risking a lot. He already did everything he targeted: Seizing the universities, the police, the judiciary... Curbing the power and the public image of the military... Syphoning a few more millions of dollars from the state vault... He has got everything now.

So it explains much about Erdogan's Kurdish Gambit. If you still don't understand what I mean, let me remind you the words of Siegbert Tarrasch, the Jewish-German chess genius:

"What is the object of playing a gambit opening? To acquire a reputation of being a dashing player at the cost of losing a game!"

Erdogan's Kurdish Gambit is such a move. If he succeeds, he will end up his political career with a huge victory. If he can't succeed, he will still be remembered as a democracy icon in the eyes of the so-called liberals. And anyway he will gain some Kurdish votes...

* * *

This is what I see when I look from the eyes of Erdogan and other AKP officials. However, the real picture is much more complicated, because what we have been living for the last 25 years was not a game.

PKK is in the terror lists of Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Even on Friday, a PKK bomb in a rubbish container has killed a civilian in Istanbul. And a police officer was stabbed to death by PKK militants in Adana just last night (below).

Erdogan, our King, may see these dead people as sacrificed pawns, but what about the rest of us? He may convince the relatives of thousands of PKK victims who died in 1980s or 1990s, but what about the ones who slained just yesterday? What about today and tomorrow?

As long as PKK is not unconditionally disarmed and DTP, its political extention, keeps refusing to condemn terrorism, the Kurdish Gambit is doomed to be a failure. Without creating the conditions to satisfy the Turkish people, any government may collapse after such a stupid gambit.

As a last word, let Emanuel Lasker, another German chessmaster, tell the truth about gambits vs. mature solutions:

"The delight in gambits is a sign of chess youth... In very much the same way as the young man, on reaching his manhood years, lays aside the Indian stories and stories of adventure, and turns to the psychological novel, we with maturing experience leave off gambit playing and become interested in the less vivacious but withal more forceful manoeuvres of the position player."

The NYT Orientalism

I've discovered an interesting article in the New York Times archives.

Its introduction is actually a definition of the Western orientalism. Running against it in an American, not a Western European piece, is more surprising than its content.

Here is the story about Turkish proverbs from the NYT issue of March 30, 1885:

"If the Turk has been qualified as 'unspeakable,' he is very far from being inarticulate. Strange as it may seem to those who have formed their opinion of him from hearsay, it is not the less true that he is commonly a good conversationalist."

Read the rest by clicking here.

An Accidental Punch in Erdogan's Stomach

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in Rize, his hometown, today.

While he was walking the street and saluting the crowd, a man approached Erdogan.

Several newspapers report that the man hit Erdogan's stomach accidentally. The accidental pugilist was actually an AKP supporter who still managed to make the Prime Minister shriek out, "Ah!"

As the punch is accidental, the impact should be minor. However, when I look at Erdogan's face in the photos, I see a stinging pain.

It is very probable that this facial expression is the result of a psychological element, not a physical one.

Erdogan was obviously scared of getting -say- stabbed at that moment.

When you have roughly 30 million people who hate you and your government, it's normal that you transform yourself into a chicken.

That's why the shoe incident was the first time that I appreciated George W. Bush, who was calm enough to escape the attack, even though he has been facing a serious assasination risk for years.

And what about Erdogan if that's how he responds to such surprising gestures of his fans?

Prophecies About the Fall of Constantinople

Before leaving the Panorama 1453, I bought a book from the museum shop.

I love to read different accounts of the Siege of Constantinople. Whether they are Ottoman, Byzantine or other sources, I like to read the words of eye-witnesses who lived 650 years ago. So I was happy to find such a book in the museum that I didn't read before.

The book was written by Nicolo Barbaro, who was a Venetian ship surgeon. He has been in Constantinople during the whole siege, so his diary is really interesting, even though it's strongly biased and subjective. Not only he reviles against the "infidel pagans" who were the Turks, but he is also angry at the Greeks and Genoese who were also defending the city.

After I bought the Turkish translation and finished reading it, I discovered that there is a free English version on the web. You can read it here in full, but I would like to quote the passage that I underlined with my red pencil. It tells about three Byzantine prophecies on the Fall of Constantinople with a desperate mood of religious submission:

"On the twenty-ninth of May, the last day of the siege, our Lord God decided, to the sorrow of the Greeks, that He was willing for the city to fall on this day into the hands of Mahomet Bey the Turk son of Murat, after the fashion and in the manner described below; and also our eternal God was willing to make this decision in order to fulfill all the ancient prophecies, particularly the first prophecy made by Saint Constantine, who is on horseback on a column by the Church of Saint Sophia of this city, prophesying with his hand and saying, "From this direction will come the one who will undo me," pointing to Anatolia, that is Turkey. Another prophecy which he made was that when there should be an Emperor called Constantine son of Helen, under his rule Constantinople would be lost, and there was another prophecy that when the moon should give a sign in the sky, within a few days the Turks would have Constantinople. All these three prophecies had come to pass, seeing that the Turks had passed into Greece, there was an Emperor called Constantine son of Helen, and the moon had given a sign in the sky (an eclipse), so that God had determined to come to this decision against the Christians and particularly against the Empire of Constan­tinople, as you shall hear."

Living the Siege of Constantinople

A few days ago, I visited a new attraction in the city. Panorama 1453 Museum presents a unique experience about the Conquest of Istanbul, or in other words, the Fall of Constantinople.

I'm reading from the guide book: There are more than 30 panaromic museums in the world, but this is the only one with a full panorama in vertical, as well, in horizontal order. This means the sky dome is also painted above. The picture is without boundaries.

Located in an area of 3000 sqm, the basic feature of this panaromic picture is its 3D impression. The minimum distance of the watcher is 14 meters. The human eyes start to work as one eye after this distance. So, the painting in the background, along with the replicas of cannons, gun carriages, powder kegs in the foreground, seems like very real.

With the help of the atmospheric sound effects, as well as the tunes of the Ottoman Army Band, you find yourself in the middle of the battle on May 29th, 1453. There are more than 10.000 figures, which were hand-drawn photorealistically and with unbelievable detail. Every section of the panorama tells about a historical dimension of the siege. You feel like you watch a movie, even though the picture is still.

All tourists should rent an electronic audio guide to discover interesting details on the panorama. For instance, because the painting is huge, you don't notice that some of the guards of Sultan Mehmed, who would earn the title "Conqueror" after this siege, hold their weapons in their left hands. When you focus on that part of the panorama, the audio guide explains you that the royal guards on the left side were always lefties to make it easier to defend the Sultan from the attacks on the left flank.

The museum was inaugurated on February and after going there twice, I can say that it's really worth visiting.

Click here to watch the panorama (in low resolution). Here are some high resolution photos that I took there:

Panorama

Here is a video that I shot (you can also watch it as HD fullscreen):

Istanbul Panorama 1453 Museum by ekizilkaya

And here is the address: View Larger Map

A Mosque with Green Dots

The Turkish community in the German city of Hamburg is building a new kind of mosque.

Its minarets would be decorated with green dots.

"We chose the pattern deliberately. It will make the mosque appear cute and jolly. It will make a difference, considering the public perception in Germany which generally associates the mosques with radicalism and social threat," Boran Burchhardt, a Protestant German-Turk artist says.

I appreciate their good intentions, but am I the only person who sees nothing on these minarets but kitsch pop-art?

The photo above shows how the mosque will look like after the painting of the minarets will be completed. Click here for more photos.

Putin's Whiskey

Another photo by a Turkish paparazzi proves that political hypocrisy is not an Islamist characteristic.

You can see it anywhere in the world.

Following the Saudi royalty, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was pictured in Ankara airport, sipping his whiskey behind the curtains of his jet.

That's another instance of two-facedness, because Putin promotes himself as a teetotaler and there are even Russian songs about this.

I don't care about people's personal lives, but I care about their consistency as public figures. In the end, should all politicians be hypocrites?

Turkey As a Crossroad

After the Nabucco project, another vital gas pipeline for the EU has been approved by Turkey.

You can see it as the latest demonstration of Turkey's stronger position as a new, major player in international politics.

An energy hub.

Or you can consider it as yet another averment of a centuries-old argument, suggesting that Turkey is a political, economical, cultural and social junction.

A crossroad.

Both may be true.

Especially as long as you look at the photo above, with Hurriyet's headline, "The signatures of the century," as well as reading the story here.

So you will realize: In the same day, three interesting people were here:

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin...

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi...

And Patrizia d'Addario, the Italian escort girl who slept with Berlusconi on a bed which was a gift of Putin, being the guest of a live TV show in Turkey!..

The Saudi Champagne

Saudi Prince Bandar Al Saud and his wife was in Turkey yesterday. Aboard their yacht which tours the Mediterranean Sea, they were comfortably sipping their champagnes along Bodrum beaches.

With all due respect to their private lives (and with all my jealousy for a holiday), I ask: Is this normal?

What would the ordinary -and bigot- Saudi citizen feel about this after learning that their petrodollar billionaire princes secretly drink alcohol abroad?

Why this hypocrisy?