Erdogan's Handicapped Democracy

“Turkey is passing through a painful process,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said today.

"Handicapped democracy is not the fate of this country," he has added.

And I was expecting him to continue:

"We'll give her an assisted suicide."

* * *

The last sentence is the product of my imagination, but anyone who may still foolishly believe that AKP is democratizing Turkey should listen to what Erdogan has additionally said for real in today's speech:

"We will not be provoked by the media. I want to call the bosses of some newspapers. You cannot say, ‘I cannot intervene in what the columnist writes.’ Columnists can't write whatever they want. Sometimes the boss should say, 'Excuse me, there is no place for you in this newspaper.' Nobody has a right to increase tension in this country. I cannot let such articles upset financial balances. You pay the salary of that columnist and tomorrow you will have no right to complain. Please, everyone should be aware of their limits. At that point, I need to warn.”

* * *

A democracy that can imprison powerful generals, but cannot protect its free press from such an anti-democratic prime minister?

Erdogan is killing the handicapped Turkish democracy softly, but it is good to see that not everyone is falling for the big lie about his "democratizing" agenda anymore.

Here is how Gareth Jenkins, an Istanbulian British journalist, has analyzed it all for BBC Turkish:

"Anyone who follows up what happens in Turkish politics would see that this (the investigation about the Sledgehammer Coup) is not a judicial process. It has been significantly politicized. (...) If it were really a judicial investigation, then it would start from the person who ordered the army to organize it (the infamous simulated military operation against the government). I mean General Hilmi Ozkok, then the Chief-of-Staff. I don't mean that he should have been arrested, but at least he should have been asked about what he knew. Nobody has done it yet, but those who participated in the simulation have been arrested. So the subordinates are under arrest while nobody even asked one question to their superiors. Such paradoxes confirm the doubt that this is a politically motivated investigation. (...) We see that (the AKP government) doesn't hesitate to interfere in judicial matters when there is an issue that effects them. Remember how Justice Ministry had delayed the investigation against Deniz Feneri charity in 2008 and how Erdogan called his supporters to boycott the newspapers that covered this corruption story..."

In the Army, We Trust (Less Than Finns)

For its latest report, Eurobarometer has interviewed more than 30.000 people in the EU member states and the candidate countries, including Turkey.

In the report, "Trust for the National Institutions" section is especially interesting. According to the findings, the most trusted national army of Europe is the Finnish Armed Forces (90 percent).

Guess who's the second AND the third?

81 percent of Turkish Cypriots and 77 percent of the people of Turkey trust in Turkey's Armed Forces. Double check!

It is equally interesting that 51 percent of the same Turkish people trust in their government as well (EU average is only 29 percent).

And it may be even more interesting that 65 percent of Turks have confidence for the judiciary, too (EU average is only 43 percent).

I'm as confused as any Turk, so I won't make any comments on these findings...

World's Biggest Spite House

I love spite houses. I like to learn their stories. I visit them wherever I go. The latest one was Inat Kuca in Sarajevo...

Unfortunately, there aren't many spite houses in Turkey as far as I know. However, probably the biggest spite house of the world has recently been built in Rize province. Its story and its architecture is funnier than most of all.

The typical Laz-joke kind of story begins with the spite of Yakup Güngör, a building contractor. He couldn't buy the land around his own land, but it didn't matter.

He built an eight-story apartment building without buying the lower land around his own estate, which was actually needed to add a feasible entrance for the structure. He wasted same amount of building material to make a giant supporting wall and another eight-story extension to reach up his building.

Result?

As neither the entrance nor the apartment building has got an elevator, a resident who owns a flat on the top floor must climb 164 steps to reach the front door of the building and then keep climbing eight more floors to arrive in his cozy home.

It sounds brilliant and it looks safe, isn't it?

TRT's Early Edition

Early Edition was a great television series that aired on CBS in 1996-2000. Set in Chicago, it followed the adventures of a man who mysteriously receives each Chicago Sun-Times newspaper the day before it is actually published, and who uses this knowledge to prevent terrible events each day.

A similar thing has happened in Turkey yesterday. TRT, Turkey's state television, reported that retired general Cetin Dogan's house was being searched by the police for the Sledgehammer Coup investigation. Consequently, Dogan phoned Hurriyet newspaper to say that he was at home and nobody searched the house. However, the police arrived in a few hours to arrest him.

After this strikingly accurate early edition, many people criticized TRT. The state channel defended itself, emphasizing that its competitors are "getting jealous of its good journalism."

I'm not sure which one of the following facts is more tragic:

1) The national public broadcaster, which is being financed by the taxes that I'm paying, is now shamelessly embedded to the government and the police (Can we expect them to cover a corruption story anymore?).

2) It is proven the Ergenekon case and its various investigations are directly government initiatives which have nothing to do with judiciary independence.

Breakfast at Tayyip's

Here they are: All the Prime Minister's artists...

The art, which -in my view- should be critical at all times, is in the service of His Majesty in His court.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has organized a breakfast at an Istanbul palace on Saturday and hosted a group of artists, including not only cheap singers like Alisan and Seda Sayan, but also more respectable musicians like Sertab Erener, Bulent Ortacgil and Arif Sag.

Erdogan asked them to contribute to the democratic initiatives of the government. A nice way to demand these singers, whose albums sell millions in Turkish slums, to bring some votes to his party in the upcoming elections. When they do a similar thing in Portugal, it's a political scandal; but this is Turkey.

Anyway, there is an irony in everything and this is no exception. It was basically an AK Party breakfast, but the surnames of the real artists who were honorable enough to boycott this cynical event made me smile:

Sezen Aksu.

Edip Akbayram.

Sabahat Akkiraz.

The Bear And The Honey

Turkish directors keep conquering the international scene.

After Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Fatih Akin and Ferzan Ozpetek, now Semih Kaplanoglu has done it...

I think that it is stupid for anyone to be proud of his nationality for a success of his compatriot, say, in sports competition or commercial business.

Cinema -and the cultural field as a whole- is different, though. I helplessly feel proud for being from the same culture with these artists who contribute to the universal heritage of humanity...

Bravo!

PS: For those who like contemporary Turkish cinema, I also recommend Reha Erdem, Ezel Akay, Zeki Demirkubuz, Kudret Sabanci and Dervis Zaim.

Colonialism 2.0

Is the following excerpt taken from an official statement of British Foreign Ministry?

"Reports that the Falkland Islands are a sort of 'Saudi Arabia on Sea' are almost certainly exaggerated. All the same, Argentine anger at the prospect of missing out on an oil bonanza is understandable. But the fact is that Britain’s international legal claim over the Falklands is sound.

The Falklands have been in British hands since 1833. The inhabitants clearly want that situation to continue. The Falklands’ geographic situation makes British sovereignty looks anomalous. The islands are far closer to Argentina than to Britain. But there are many such anomalies in the world, from Guam to Guadeloupe – respectively, an American territory in the Pacific and a French department in the Caribbean."

The answer:

No.

This is the editorial piece of a British newspaper; unbiased, independent and respectable!

An expert on international law should give Financial Times a briefing about the real status of Malvinas, because their editors -with their unbiased logic- probably think that Britain can have sound legal claims even on the United States (or India) territory when needed.

P.S: We're talking about a colony here. I wouldn't object if these were the words of a columnist, but this piece is published today as an editorial. And then some people pop up and assert that Western European/American media organizations are independent and unlike the media of other countries, they are not the mouthpiece of their governments. I have doubts about it. I believe that all media are more or less an extension of their governments in different ways. That's something we should admit and try to fix.

A Turkish Tank For Sale

An eBay user is trying to sell a refurbished Turkish M-60, adding that he's about to finish the paperwork to export the tank from Turkey. The price is 200.000 dollars.

So here I'm giving the incriminating information: Turkish prosecutors should be alerted... It seems that military officers started to sell everything before fleeing the country to be political refugees... Adverse effects of the Ergenekon case?..

The Quote of the Week

"All nations are ruled by the government that they deserve." -- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Coup De Grace

The long-awaited coup has finally happened in Turkey.

Surprisingly, it is not the army which organized this coup. It is the elected government itself.

Consider Italy, where Silvio Berlusconi is trying to protect himself indefinitely with tailor-made laws. Consider how the Italian judiciary is still independent against all odds, disallowing the hugely popular Berlusconi to completely seize the system, which may turn Italy into a postmodern one-man state.

Turkey is not so lucky. The AKP government and the pseudo-Islamic communities that pull most of its strings is already in the final stage of their civilian coup. After seizing the police, the universities and the media, now they're about to conquer the last fortress of the secular democracy: The judiciary.

Firstly, AKP created a boogie-man called Ergenekon and now they're using it as a pretext to do what they want.

Some prosecutors, who seem like quite pro-government and quite sectarian, recently started to arrest their own bureau chiefs, ruthlessly violating the Constitution. As far as I see, the only mistake of those chief prosecutors was the fact that they investigated some Islamist sects, including the Ismailaga Brotherhood (above) as well as the Gulenists. They did it bravely by ignoring the direct warnings of the government, reaching some strong evidence which shows criminal links of some sect members.

Today, the biggest unions and umbrella organizations of the judiciary condemned the illegal arrests of a prosecutor, emphasizing that "this is a political attempt of the government to seize the judiciary." The legal authority of the infamous prosecutor is revoked now.

It is good that not all the elements of the checks and balances system in Turkey is occupied. However, how long can they survive in a country where prisons are full of journalists and intellectuals who are imprisoned by the government for months without one justifying evidence?

And what will happen when the Islamists are powerful enough and don't need to hide their true intentions anymore?

Will I still be able to find a job without an AKP moustache?

Even now it is not possible in the government institutions...

Will my wife still be able to walk the streets without a headscarf?

Even now it is not possible in Carsamba neighborhood of Istanbul, where the Ismailaga Brotherhood rules like an a-la-turca Taliban...

We Licked, Still Swallowing

As the 2010 European Capital of Culture, Istanbul keeps celebrating art passionately.

Actually, with an Islamist administration in charge, passion may be the wrong word here.

In Beyoglu Municipality, one of the cultural centers of Istanbul that is currently controlled by the AKP government, a play titled “Yala Ama Yutma” (Lick But Don’t Swallow) was about to be staged.

Vakit daily, a hardcore Islamist newspaper, criticized the play, which is about an angel who was sent to Earth and found herself in the body of a porn star. Even the culture editor of Vakit defended that the angel figure being related to pornography insults Muslims. The theater and the actors and actresses received many threatening letters and calls after that.

Consequently, Beyoglu Municipality locked the theater on the grounds that the building didn't have a fire escape stairs or a license. After huge public pressure, the theater is allowed to reopen following a two weeks long delay.

Before writing on the subject, I waited to see if the municipality would back down or not. Now I'm happy to observe that the European Capital of Culture title has at least got this effect. Maybe this title will never be triggering a tourism boom, but it checks and balances the authoritarian/Islamist administration.

Is it enough, though?

* * *

The Wall Street Journal criticizes the Internet repression of the Turkish government today, suggesting that "there is nothing European, let alone cultural, about prohibiting citizens from viewing YouTube." The author even suggests that the European Capital of Culture title of Istanbul should be suspended until this censor is over.

Nice article, but sorry, it doesn't sound honest now...

Wasn't it the same Wall Street Journal which has been passionately supporting the AKP government, praising it as a democratizing force in Turkey?

All in all, Turkey is not more democratic today, comparing to 2003. Only the center of gravity has changed...

What the Western European/American newspapers praise in AKP is not about democratic progress. The only democratic laws that AKP drafts are the ones that give them a better edge in the power shift (i.e the government allowed the civilian courts to prosecute the military officers, but they didn't lift the legal immunity for their own MPs, even though it was one of their election promises).

After all, seven years should be more than enough to create a better enviroment for free speech, for any democratic government with a powerful mandate in the parliament.

And what did AKP do? Blackmailing the biggest media corporations of the country with unjustified tax penalties, arresting people for what they write, blocking more than 3,700 websites for their content, including Youtube, Myspace, Last.fm, etc...

Personally, I feel that this government is not only effectively oppressing my voice and forcing me to censor myself instinctively, but it is also staining the international image of the Turkish democracy, aligning Ankara with AKP's eternal friends, like the Iranian government. In this phase, starting to listen to some complaining voices in the Western European/American media is not meaningful anymore. It just sounds like politics.

Anyway... To finish, I must emphasize that I'm more interested about what happens in this country in a global context than what other countries think about this country locally... So I would like to ask myself:

Does the following Reuters story sound like talking about a European Capital of Culture which was being administered by a democratizing government for almost a decade:

"The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday ruled that Turkey had prevented public access to Europe's literary heritage and violated freedom of expression when it banned a classic erotic novel.

The Strasbourg-based court ruled in favour of a petition from publisher Rahmi Akdas, who in 1999 printed a Turkish translation of French writer Guillaume Apollinaire's 1907 novel "The Eleven Thousand Rods," which has passages on sadism, homosexuality, paedophilia and necrophilia.

Akdas was convicted of morality crimes and fined about 1,100 euros ($1,500) and an order was issued to destroy all copies of the book. A Turkish appeals court later upheld the conviction but struck down the destruction order.

Turkey ranks 123 out of 175 countries on Reporters Without Borders' 2009 Press Freedom Index."

When You Have Friends Like These...

Last month, I had criticized General Ilker Basbug, the head of Turkey's armed forces, after he said that the army's patience should not be tested.

Haberturk newspaper has published an interview with Basbug today. In this interview, the general explains what exactly may happen if he loses patience:

"We have a lot of information. We have many documents. We can be forced to share them with the public."

What kind of threat is that? Blackmailing? But against whom? And if revealing them is in the interest of the public, how come a public servant hide those documents now?

* * *

Meanwhile Vatan newspaper has published an exclusive report. Here is the introduction of the story:

"The police have arrested 12 people who were suspected to bring 50 kg of narcotics from Diyarbakir to Istanbul. Mehmet Erdogan, the nephew of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, was among the suspects. Prime Minister Erdogan didn't protect his nephew. He ordered the police 'to do the necessary' and Mehmet was consequently sent to prison."

Isn't this story implicitly telling us that Erdogan was able to protect his nephew, but he didn't do so? So this time he didn't cover up a crime? Thanks for this, your excellency, but what about the inconvenient probabilities about past incidents?

* * *

The Economist has just published an analysis about the latest developments in Turkey, including the so-called Sledgehammer Coup plot. Even though I don't agree with some points of view in this analysis, it is still an interesting summary. And the most striking part is the following words:

“One might feel better about the military’s loss of power if Turkey had a balanced political system with the possibility of alternance of government,” says Eric Edelman, a former American ambassador to Turkey.

This is why I don't like the political trend in Turkey nowadays. As a Turkish citizen, I have never become a coup-mongering militarist, but I also know that the further undermining of the army may give birth to a much more anti-democratic system in civil form, which may be an authoritarianism or even a totalitarianism with a neo-Islamist frame.

As Charles Bukowski says:

"Before you kill something, make sure you have something better to replace it with."

One More Unbiased Voice Silenced

A few weeks ago, Mehmet Emin Karamehmet was bidding against the state-owned television for the live broadcasting rights of the Turkish football league on behalf of Digiturk, the digital TV platform that he owns. This powerful and respectable media tycoon, who also owns the telecom giant Turkcell, won the contract by agreeing to pay $1.97 billion over four years.

It seems that the Turkish government is the last one to laugh as Karamehmet has been found guilty in a banking fraud case just a few hours ago. If confirmed by the Supreme Court, he will be prisoned for over 11 years.

Like all financial cases, the issue is quite technical and very hard to crack. However, the decision can create serious doubts in the mind of any reasonable person, especially in these times that several independent media organizations are being targeted systematically by the financial bullies of the government.

For instance, even if we accept that Karamehmet had funneled over 100 million dollars from his bank shamelessly, why is this punishment so harsh, considering the fact that he had recovered all the financial damage that was done to his bank?

And how come other defendants, two more important businessmen, get acquitted thanks to the legal lapse of time while Karamehmet is being singled out?

I don't know the answer of these questions, but I do know one thing:

One more independent media employer is being forced out of the sector. His media outlets, including Show TV, Aksam and Skyturk, will either learn to behave or... The pro-government media, with all of its sometimes-hypocrite-sometimes-unashamed bias, will monopolize the free press in Turkey.

To give you an impression about how several conscious (and conscientious) people feel now about the future of the Turkish democracy, I would like to translate the words of a user called Manzikert of the most popular Turkish-language internet forum, Eksi Sozluk:

"AKP is such a disease that many people regard tycoons as better than this party. Nobody is asleep. Everybody sees everything, but at the same time everybody feels weak. Imagine: If those institutions that this government is attacking now by the pretext of liberalism were not there, what would stop these men? Why does the government suddenly start to oppose the rich, whom they were getting along very well in the past? Because the government doesn't need them anymore. Because the government has got its own rich now. What can I say and why should I do it? Turkey is being seized completely. Day by day, step by step... On the climax, though, we may arrive in a turning point where the course may be reversed."

Did Chirac Avoid the Turkish First Lady?

As Einstein says: Coincidence should be God's way of remaining anonymous...

The French government has wrapped up the polarizing debate on national identity by introducing some symbolic requirements at all schools in France, including French flags and the national anthem.

Just a few years ago, the EU elite were considering such measures as extreme practices of nationalism. They were criticizing Turkey for resorting to similar measures to sustain the national pride.

Moreover, Paris is also about to ban the burqa in public places, coming one more step closer towards the Ankara criteria. Their next step may be the banning of all kinds of headscarves in university campuses, who knows?

* * *

Deniz Baykal, leader of Turkey's main opposition party CHP, has revealed today that Jacques Chirac, then the President of France, didn't want to host the wife of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan six years ago.

Baykal suggests that Chirac had explained in a diplomatic manner that the French law didn't permit religious symbols in public offices.

The news archive of Sabah has confirmed that Erdogan's wife, who wears an Islamist headscarf, didn't go to France after an exchange between Erdogan and Chirac regarding the secular practice.

I've googled for it, but couldn't find any photo of Chirac with a covered Muslim woman...

And I can't even imagine Chirac, working in the Turkish parliament as a Turkish opposition member, say, of CHP.

Chirac, thumping his desk furiously as Erdogan speaks, shouting, "Turkey is secular and will remain secular..."

And Erdogan, ordering another physical assault towards the nasty opposition members who mess with his wife's headscarf, trying to punch Chirac in the face...

Is it too unrealistic?

After seeing where Paris is heading today, I can say that it can be a reality soon in France, too. Only the names may change.

Towards Newness

In these days, as the world and Turkey seem to be on some kind of crossroads, it's better to stay positive even though we don't know where exactly we're heading. (Or maybe all people of all ages had once felt the same way... Imagine the 18th century...)

Anyway I would like to share such an optimism in musical form. Here is another great collaboration between Sezen Aksu, one of the best Turkish song-writers ever, and Arto Tuncboyaciyan, a Turkish-Armenian musician. The lyrics are obviously inspired by Rumi.

I've just made a hasty translation:

How great it is

To fly away from somewhere everyday

How nice it is to flow

Without getting muddy, without being frozen

How good it is

To land on somewhere everyday

How nice it is to flow

Without getting muddy, without being frozen

With yesterday,

Has my soul passed away

Now it is needed to say

Something new

And all the words

That belonged to yesterday

Now it is needed to say

Something new

69: Feel the Wrath!

"Nationalist MPs; tonight, we dine in hell!"

69 MHP deputies may have uttered something like that while preparing to confront 338 furious AKP members in a Taiwanese style fistfight in the Turkish parliament yesterday.

Surprisingly, outnumbered MHP have won the fight in the end as they have literally beaten the AKP men who retreated back to their seats in shock and awe.

It all started when MHP deputy Osman Durmus sarcastically said, “How do you [the hospital] not let the wife of a prime minister who is regarded as prophet come into the hospital," referring to a recent incident in a military hospital where the Turkish First Lady was not allowed the enter because of her headscarf that would violate the secular dress codes.

Enters Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's Prime Minister. Spitting fire at Durmus in his flash-speech, he accused him with blasphemy, emphasizing that Mohammed was the last prophet. Actually Durmus was quoting a local administrator of AKP, who had claimed last year that Erdogan was "almost a prophet." Erdogan has ignored this reference completely. He twisted the story as always, making up a new narrative that he would comfortably place himself as a victim. All of his foes were oppressive and/or heretic again. In the end, he shouted the war cry and the horde of Erdoganians attacked absentmindedly.

However, AKP's well-calculated overreaction has ultimately backfired. A few MHP men, whose personal histories were stained by brutal anti-leftist violence, were hard nuts to crack. As all the niminy-piminy AKP deputies were flagging for truce, they were also accepting a public humiliation. Today, most people in Turkey were talking about the parliamentarian embarrassment of AKP. Almost nobody cares about the debate on prophecy, even after all the efforts of the pro-government media to highlight Erdogan's twisted version of the story. For MHP, it was dirty, but still a victory...

While looking at the red face of Erdogan, who seemed like he was in a convulsion of hatred and exasperation, I was seeing everything but religious composure. Was this the number-one political representative of moderate Islam in the world? If Islam is a religion of peace, shouldn't this man be regarded as its iconic antagonist?

Then I've read a story in the Washington Post. Barack Obama's aides were telling that the US President was actually a prayerful guy, but he was just not showing it off. Thanks to his faith, he was always remaining calm. The WP story continues as follows:

"A third senior adviser, Valerie Jarrett, said Obama's private religious beliefs have helped sustain his temperament during trying times in office. 'Part of that even temperament comes from his faith which is an important component," Jarrett said. Asked why the public did not hear much about his faith during his first year in office, she nodded and said, 'He's had a lot on his plate.'"

Now who's more Muslim? The Christian Obama or the Islamist Erdogan?

Erdogan: Comfortably Inconsistent

Here are three quotations from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's Prime Minister, revealing how he is comfortable in his inconsistencies:

"The global economic crisis will just touch Turkey like a tangent line." October 27th, 2008

"Now I am confirmed. The global economic crisis did really become a tangent to Turkey. Turkey has escaped the crisis with minimum damage." January 12th, 2010

"Protests of some laid-off tobacco workers are illegal. They should know that there are millions of unemployed people in this country, who would happily work for a minimum wage (which those tobacco workers refuse)." February 3rd, 2010

Erdogan is as inconsistent as any populist autocrat, isn't he?

Thresholds and Bipartisan Systems

If Turkey's election threshold of 10 percent is a problem for its democracy, isn't the American threshold also a problem?

Think about recent U.S. presidential elections. The Electoral College and an absent viable third party had amplified the apparent split as sweeping reds and blues all over the country.

Was this bipolar split really an accurate representation of the political diversity of such a populous nation?

Or was it a pragmatic consolidation of political trends for sake of a stronger government?

All in all, I believe that the national threshold in Turkey should be lowered, but I also ask myself the following questions quite often as a political-brainstorming:

Is such a threshold really anti-democratic? Do we really want yet another unstable coalition?