Christian Jihadists

Nine members of a radical Christian militia were charged with plotting to kill police in Michigan and wage war on the US government, Agence France Press reported yesterday.

If you check the website of these fanatics, you'll see a Biblical quotation: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

The incident proves that all religions and all holy texts, including the New Testament, can be abused to justify extremist violence. However, in the incorrupt core of both Islam and Christianity, there lies the peace. All in all, as I've said before, there are no stupid religions, but stupid people.

PS: The American authorities and the American media still refuse to label these fanatics as terrorists. If it is because they are not Muslims, isn't it disturbing?

Erdogan's Psycho-Politics

Ali Bayramoglu, a columnist of Yeni Safak, was the guest of NTV today. While making comments about the despicable remarks of Tayyip Erdogan, Bayramoglu hinted that the Prime Minister has got difficulties in controlling himself:

"When Erdogan told these words, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was also in the same building (of BBC London). Erdogan encountered Davutoglu in a corridor. 'Mr. Davutoglu, I did something bad', he said. And Davutoglu replied 'I can't believe you, we had talked about it.' We also couldn't believe him. Erdogan can say such words and then feels uncomfortable. However, when somebody else criticizes him because of these words, he keeps defending himself obstinately. It's something psycho-political."

Merkel and Erdogan as Cigarettes

There are only two problems in Turkish-German relations today:

Tayyip Erdogan and Angela Merkel.

A similar antagonism can also be found in Franco-Turkish relations, fueled by a bling-bling president.

I believe that there are several commonalities in the socio-political structure of these three countries. They are all haunted by a populist, reactionary conservatism which just refuses to get off.

That's why I remember those wise words again: "Politically; if fascism is cancer, then the center-right is cigarette."

* * *

I remember these words amid the latest rift between Ankara and Berlin.

Merkel hit back at the proposal of Erdogan to set up Turkish schools in Germany. "I do not think much of the idea of Turkish children going to Turkish school", she said.

Being an ear-witness of two hypocrites who are happily living with their political double-standards is making me sick.

As Süddeutsche Zeitung has recently pointed out, if it were Nicolas Sarkozy to ask setting up more French schools in Germany, Merkel would perceive it as a well-intentioned effort to solidify Franco-German relations. However, when it's all about Turks, things change.

The double-standard in this understandable change is actually a catalyst for racism. Merkel's discourse is doing in Germany what exactly the national identity discourse of Sarkozy is doing in France.

On the other hand, if you turn to Erdogan, you would see that he is no better than the others. He is also a hypocrite, considering the fact that he wouldn't even tolerate to listen to a discussion about the possibility of Kurdish high school education in Turkey.

Sad for Germany, sad for Turkey, sad for Europe...

P.S: Beyond my dislike of right-wing double-standards, I believe that the primary and secondary schools should naturally be educating in the official language of any nation-state. As Turkey and Germany are both nation-states, such a position is rational for both of them. However, their intolerant leaders stain this justification by their hypocrisy which teases the Other.

The Turkish One-Man and the American Coup-Mongers

Turkey is a step closer to a civil dictatorship.

A one-party regime under one man: Tayyip Erdogan.

I'm talking about the legal reforms that the AKP government has recently proposed. Actually it's not a proposal, it's a dictation.

Simply said, these reforms will serve to the ultimate goal of AKP: Seizing all the powers of the Turkish democracy.

The Presidency has been seized.

The parliament has been seized.

The media have been seized.

The military has been seized.

Universities have been seized.

And now, it seems that they are putting the last nail on the coffin of the Turkish democracy.

With these reforms, judiciary will basically be an apparatus of the government.

Hence, the checks-and-balances system of the state will be gone.

And then who knows what this autocratic, Islamist-rooted government would do with Turkey...

Italians manage to stop such corrupt autocrats, but the Turkish system is not as sound, it seems.

* * *

I hate to see critical views about AKP in the American and Western European media nowadays; because I know that they have begun to do it not because they love the Turkish people, but because Ankara started to be an obstacle in the nuclear crisis with Iran.

Whatever their motive is, I find some of these critical views accurate. Morton Abramowitz and Henri J. Barkey have published such an article in the Wall Street Journal a couple of days ago. In the end, they write in such a coup-mongering tone that they may be arrested in Turkey as Ergenekon suspects:

Despite Turkey's impressive strides under AKP rule and the praise it has received from the West, the U.S. and other Western countries still have to put their money where their mouths are. While a genuinely free-market party, the AKP is not a liberal party in the traditional sense—Mr. Erdogan rules his party with an iron fist. Nor does the AKP appear to have much time for the needs of those who oppose it. It has ignored the legitimate fears of pro-secular groups, especially women, and it is intent on subduing the media rather than reforming it. It has also yet to effectively tackle the major cleavages in Turkish life: It made a start on the Kurdish issue but has lost its appetite; has long ignored the need to overhaul its authoritarian constitution and unfair election practices; and has failed to make clear to the public whether it is a truly secular party, as it proclaims.

Turkey will only move forward if the AKP reshapes itself and acts on its promises to make Turkey a better-functioning democracy. That will not be easy, since politics in Turkey have been a zero-sum game this past decade. The West has praised the AKP until now, but it does Turks no favors by shying away from declaring that major changes are essential for Turkey to be a part of the EU and the wider democratic world. If the AKP doesn't hear and heed that message, it may engender precisely what Turkey's Western friends would loathe to see: The re-emergence of an authoritarian society, or even the military's political comeback.

It's A Great Day For Europe, Everybody!

After Nicolas Sarkozy has suffered a crashing defeat in regional elections, I've decided to borrow this headline fom Craig Ferguson.

It's really a great day for Europe and I think of the European interests here, not only the national interests of Turkey.

If this is a prelude to another Sarkozy defeat in the 2012 presidential elections, then France will have a Socialist in charge. Such a president -actually anybody else- has got the potential to lead the EU much better than Sarkozy had done. A deeper vision is on the horizon...

It's a secondary issue, but a Socialist president in France will also be better for Turkey. Instead of this xenophobic/Islamaphobic populist in charge, there will be a different person in Elysee Palace. This difference may be more challenging for Turkey, but the new interaction between France and Turkey will have more positive consequences for Europe and the world.

To summarize:

The French right is against Turkey's EU membership with their vague and inconsistent arguments; but they are also reluctant to criticize Ankara in a constructive way because of fear of commercial repercussions.

The French left supports the EU bid of Turkey; but they also don't refrain from scathing criticism. Such criticism may hurt Ankara from time to time, but it is always constructive and consistent.

So I believe that if something is good for France, it is also good for Turkey and the whole Europe. Sarkozy is good for none of them.

When You Follow Karl Rove, He Also Follows You

I have a Twitter account since early 2008, the prehistoric times of the famous micro-blogging site. So I'm probably one of the earliest Turkish users on this site. However, I've been using the site solely on personal basis then, communicating with my fiancée in Berlin, my brother in Helsinki and my sisters-in-law in Moscow and San Francisco through status updates and direct messages which were mostly closed circuit. Unfortunately, Turkcell, my mobile phone operator, stopped to send and receive Twitter SMSs after a while.

That's how I had eventually become a passive tweeter. I was still visiting the site quite often, but this time it was solely on a professional basis, as a leecher instead of a contributor. Like for following the Iranian election riots last summer, thanks to incredible Twitter sources like Persiankiwi, and writing articles for my newspaper, Hurriyet.

Last week, I've decided to use Twitter more actively as a news source by using its relatively new lists feature. I've also started to post my Twitter account the links of my newspaper articles and blog entries.

On the other hand, I still can't understand why most people use this platform as a live broadcast of their lives. Why is exhibitionism so fashionable in our age? And why do many people crave to prove how smart they are -in 140 characters?

When it comes to functionality as a communicative amplification, though, sites like Twitter and Facebook are invaluable tools. So it's not for ordinary people; it's for us, the journalists and the PR people, as if these are really different categories. I've just seen it again yesterday: By following the Twitter account of Danny Ayalon, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, I learned what exactly Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu would say today.

There are side-effects for us, too. For instance, hours after I started to follow Karl Rove's Twitter account, hoping to catch an instant news-bit one day, he also started to follow me. I know that it is probably an autobot or a PR person on the other end of the line; but it's still scary, you know. When I look into Karl Rove, he also looks into me, trying to sell his new book.

That's why I'm both for and against Twitter in its current form.

The Journalist as Erdogan's Scapegoat

Following his controversial remarks about the Armenian immigrants in Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the Turkish media again. For him, the media is the perfect scapegoat for all of his mistakes.

Who are really we?

Elcin Poyrazlar answers in an excellent piece in The Huffington Post today. As she states:

"I am a journalist. According to some people in the Turkish government, my job description should include submitting to everything, even gracefully allowing politicians to spit at me and my like. I should not revolt, I should not criticize and I should not complain. Like an increasing number of journalists, columnists, editors, and writers in Turkey, I should stomach or even applaud such treatment."

Let's remember:

Until a few months ago, some journalists were licking the boots of the PM -not the boots of a military official anymore.

Now Erdogan harshly accuses these journalists, because they have dared to criticize him after his latest remarks.

Do these journalists still think that the PM is working to democratize Turkey? Is it a struggle for democracy or a struggle for power? Are they finally sure?

Erdogan Is An Ideal EU Leader Now

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, has warned that he might deport up to 100,000 Armenians living in Turkey without citizenship, after resolutions passed by U.S. and Swedish lawmakers defining World War One-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.

"I don't have to keep them in my country," Erdogan said.

Surely a deplorable statement, but not in the way that Armenia and the Armenian lobby have instantly jumped to abuse...

Many pro-Armenian websites have started to propagate that these words remind them of the tragedy in 1915, of course, with some fabricated images of the so-called genocide.

In reality, Erdogan's statement has got nothing to do with Turkish Armenians. He solely means the Armenian citizens who had entered Turkey in illegal means to work without permit.

It is indeed unfair to use these poor illegal immigrants as a political leverage; but it is totally justified.

Erdogan does not speak like Adolf Hitler, unlike what some Armenians have suggested today. (Should I also remind you the fact that Turkey was saving European Jews while many Armenians in Europe were supporting the Nazi government?)

If the Armenian diaspora has a problem with this language and this political style, they should first look around.

They would see somebody familiar, hanging around the Elysee Palace, thanks to some of their own votes in France.

Yes, Erdogan speaks more like Nicolas Sarkozy and this is the newly-created sans-papiers issue of the AKP government...

So now, with a traumatic history, a disastrous economy and a shamelessly pragmatic Turkish Sarkozy in charge, Ankara is finally ready to be a member of the European Union.

A Creative Armenian Solution: Reconvert Muslims

The part of the problem with the Armenian genocide allegations is about some Armenians themselves.

Comparing to Armenia, Turkey is a much more polyphonic country.

Take Ruben Melkonyan.

This Armenian author, who have recently published a scientific work, suggests that "Armenia should reconvert Islamized Armenians in Turkey."

How can you sustain a reconcialition process with such people on the other side of the table?

Can you make peace with people whose mind-sets are stucked in the Middle Ages?

I believe that you can neither make peace with nor wage war against them, because such people belong to another time, another world.

The Map of Piri Reis and How It Was Discovered

As it is widely known, one of the oldest maps of America still in existence was drawn by Piri Reis, an Ottoman-Turkish admiral and cartographer. Piri Reis' map was prepared in 1513. The oldest one was drawn by Juan de la Cosa in 1500. However, it can be argued that the map of Piri Reis is more important than the map of Juan de la Cosa, because the former has the only known reference to the lost map of Christopher Colombus, which was drawn in 1498.

There are several amazing stuff about the map of Piri Reis. First of all, it is strikingly accurate in positioning the continents.

Secondly, it is the first known map depicting Antarctica, which would be discovered in the late 18th century, and the Andes, which were not known by Europeans until Pizarro.

Thirdly, the map reveals some details of Antarctica shores which were covered by ice then and depicting Greenland as two separate land masses under the ice shelf instead of one, which would only be confirmed by modern seismic studies, not medieval field observations.

Because of these characteristics, some conspiracy theorists suggest that the map cannot be drawn without flying over these continents. So it was either given to Piri Reis by extraterrestrial aliens or Piri Reis had the ability to make astral travels!

In reality, the science disproved most of these legends. I also believe that, like all the products of genius, the map was the fruit of a coupling of hard-work and luck, not metaphysics.

Piri Reis had managed to compile some of the best maps of his time after spending hours in several libraries. Moreover, he had an uncle who had a Spanish slave who participated in several expeditions as a sailor of Colombus. Piri Reis had the sources that would make any cartographer jealous.

So, like Sinan the Architect, I take Piri Reis as an example of scholar discipline and diligence. And the story about the modern discovery of his medieval map was as inspiring as his genius in labor.

To finish, I'll translate a passage from the latest book of Sunay Akin, which I'm enjoying to read nowadays:

"In 1929, while the efforts to turn Topkapi Palace into a museum were still being made, Ethem Eldem, the manager of the prospective museum, was walking past the Harem section. Some of the workers were dining in a room. They invited Eldem to their table. After kindly rejecting their offer, Eldem noticed something on the table. He stepped in, got a closer look and saw that it was an ancient map that the workers were covering their table with! With awe and anger, Eldem ordered them to put everything off the map and that's how the masterpiece of Piri Reis was saved. However, the stains of cheese, tomato and helva can still be seen on the map and we have only one-fifth of it now. Maybe Eldem had discovered the map on a Friday evening... and the other four pieces had already been used as disposable table cloths before eventually junked by the same workers on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings..."

Conspiracies, Paranoia and Lies

The article that I've read today in the Wall Street Journal cast a spell on me.

It was both funny and heartbreaking.

It was an essential provocation, full of naked truth and some necessary exaggerations from today's Turkey.

And it is so accurate that I thought that someone who was born and raised in Turkey, probably an ethnic Turk -if this concept is really not misleading- must have written it in a totally honest, self-critical mood.

However, the author was actually Claire Berlinski, an American journalist who lives in Istanbul.

* * *

Following the news-storms about the Ergenekon case and the genocide bills, Berlinski's piece helped me to focus on the big picture, instead of losing myself in details.

So after I read the article, I stopped thinking about the world, the government or the opposition for a while.

I thought of us, each individual of the people of Turkey, and I asked myself:

How and why did we create this chaos of conspiracies, paranoia and lies, which waste our energy, drive us away from the real agenda and disrupt our cultural productivity, which is the only thing that really matters at the national level?

Berlinski has some eloquent answers for these questions, too:

"Paranoia is inevitably also grandiose. When the House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed up the recent resolution to describe the massacre of Armenians in the First World War era as a genocide, Suat Kiniklioglu, the spokesman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Turkish Parliament, explained Turkey's outrage thus: 'I think the Americans would feel that same if we were to pass a resolution in our parliament talking about the treatment of [native] Indians in this country.'

Mr. Kiniklioglu speaks fluent English; he has spent years in the West. Yet he is blind to the most obvious of facts about American culture: No one in America would give a damn.

Meanwhile, discussion of Turkey's most serious social and economic problems—corruption, poverty, unemployment, and a legal system held in contempt even by its attorneys—has been eclipsed. Reports of economic miracles under the AKP have, as everyone now understands, been exaggerated by statistical legerdemain. This is all too easy to do, because Turkey has one of the largest underground economies in the world, worth somewhere between one-third and two-thirds of the country's GDP. Every major economic sector in Turkey is largely off-the-record. No one can say confidently whether these sectors are growing or shrinking, and even officially, Turkey now has the second-highest rate of unemployment in Europe. This is hardly the mark of an expanding middle class."

(...)

The failure to prepare for this predictable event is a betrayal of trust, like so many the Turkish people have suffered. Each deepens the paranoia. Each citizen believes that to survive, he must lie and conspire. Everyone assumes everyone else is lying and conspiring against him because he himself is lying and conspiring."

Soldier's Mobile Cancer

Following the deadly earthquake in eastern Turkey, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has visited the disaster area today.

A bulky soldier was escorting Erdogan with a huge mobile jammer on his back.

The photo shows that even the authority who is the main responsible of the eavesdropping terror in Turkey has become paranoid.

It may also demonstrate how much value the prime minister assigns to the life of a soldier, who protects him as a member of the army that he wages a covert war against.

Turkish Lesbians and Turkish Coffee

I am not a huge fan of How I Met Your Mother, a popular American sitcom; but I watch it occasionally and find most of the episodes quite funny.

The latest episode (5x17) included the second Turkish reference in the history of this TV show.

Jennifer Lopez, who made a cameo appearance on the show, chose to drink a cup of Turkish coffee among five coffee alternatives.

I guess that's a great, free advertisement for this awesome beverage which I adore!

The previous Turkish reference was not that much positive for Turkey, but it was funnier.

On the third episode of the third season, there was a phone conversation between Robin and Lily, which also included a coffee reference, as well as the condemnation of hairy Turkish lesbians:

Robin: Lily, I have pounded three cappuccinos waiting for you. Pretty soon I won't have to shave, the hair is going to vibrate off my legs.

Lily: Sorry, I can't leave now.

Robin: Lily, he can't see my legs like this. I look like a Turkish lesbian!

PKK and Its Discontents

A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of terrorism.

However, something happened unexpectedly and following a meeting of EU foreign ministers, several EU governments suddenly started to prosecute PKK and its connections in Europe.

It seems that PKK is really recognized as a terrorist organization now, as if this is not a decade-old verdict by the EU.

France, Belgium and Italy -three countries that have been the main European strongholds of PKK until last week- keep organizing anti-terror raids.

A few hours ago, Zubeyir Aydar and Remzi Kartal, the former MPs in Turkey whose connections to the political wing of PKK are obvious, have been detained by a Belgium court. Belgium is also keen to shut down Roj TV, PKK's mouthpiece.

PKK has sent a fax to a Belgium institution today, threating to organize bomb attacks across Belgium.

I hope that their threats won't be realized and no innocent life in Belgium will be lost. As a Turk, I know what loosing a friend to PKK terror is like. I don't want to see anybody else experiencing it.

At the same time, I hope that this is a dead-end for this terror organization, which has been grown and raised by the unashamed support and sympathy of several Western agencies which wanted to gain another leverage against Turkey that should never be stable enough to be a member or a competitor of the EU in the past.

We'll see if the EU will be intimidated by the threats of PKK. If they won't back down, then this may be a new beginning for Turkey and the EU.

PS: It is awful to see that the officials of BDP, the new DTP, are also accusing -and even threatening- the Belgium authorities. Maybe they must be thankful that Turkey is much more democratic than Spain, where even people who refuse to criticize Batasuna are being imprisoned.

The Railroad Station Without Trains

The only railroad station that no train has ever stopped by is in Dalaman, southwestern Turkey. The history of Dalaman Railroad Station is interesting:

Abbas Hilmi Pasha, an Ottoman ally and the last Khedive of Egypt, has once visited the Turkish riviera in the early 20th century. He bought some land around Dalaman, which was largely uninhabited at the time.

Hilmi Pasha, who loved the nature in Dalaman so much, made a deal with some French architects to build a mansion there. The same French company has also been given the job to build a train station in Alexandria, one of the biggest cities of Hilmi Pasha's Egypt.

Somehow, the French architects mixed up these two projects. The materials that were needed to build a train station had been sent to Dalaman and another ship had carried everything needed to build a luxury residence to Alexandria.

Hilmi Pasha saw that it would be too costly to re-ship everything to the right destination. So he built his new mansion in Alexandria and that's how Dalaman obtained a railroad station without a railway track in 1906.

If you'll visit Marmaris or Fethiye, I recommend you to drop by Dalaman, too. It's a picturesque town of 15.000 people with lots of resident tourists, including the new ones like the Germans and the grandchildren of the older ones, the Egyptian-Sudanese community. If you go there, don't forget to see the purposeless train station, which stands there as a public institution now with a bunch of Egyptian palms that Hilmi Pasha had once planted around...

Defending Erdogan

This will be the second time that I will defend Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. I'm going to do it, because I believe that Islamophobia is as dangerous as political Islamism.

After Mustafa Sarigul; now Geert Wilders, who is almost as despicable as Sarigul, attacked Erdogan.

Scoring a shock victory in the latest local elections in the Netherlands, the infamous producer of Fitna has criticized Erdogan, calling him a "total freak", as can be seen from the following video:

I may ignore this crazy speech if Wilders was just a lonely lunatic, but he's not. He will definitely be a key player for the next Dutch government. Some say that he can even be the next prime minister. So it is clear that his views are being shared by lots of people in the Netherlands.

Wilders' rise is the result of the shameful tolerance for Islamophobic speech, which is actually an extension of anti-semitism. As long as anti-Muslim xenophobia is considered in the boundries of much-abused right of free speech, European democracy will keep degrading. After all, how come do you forbid people to insult the Jews and Judaism, but allow the same people to use exactly same negative words for the Muslims and Islam?

And what can be said about the Dutch people who allow this really total freak to rise? The people who vote for this racist man are bringing shame to their fathers, who bravely resisted the Nazi occupation in the past...

However, it's their decision at the end of the day, like Hitler was the decision of the majority of the German people in 1930s and Erdogan is the decision of -almost- the majority of the Turkish people nowadays. Once again, with the words that I have recently quoted from Atatürk: "All nations are ruled by the government that they deserve."

How Did Armenian Militants Kidnap President Obama

The U.S House Foreign Affairs Committee has just approved a non-binding resolution, which describes the deaths of Ottoman Armenians during World War I as genocide.

In Turkey, we have watched the vote live on TV, as if we watched a football match. It was too close to call until the end, before the Armenian lobby scored a few last minute goals to beat the Turkish lobby: 23-22.

However, comparing the size of these lobbies, it's not a big victory for the Armenians, as it is proven that they're much weaker now and the Turks in Washington are stronger than ever, thanks to the changing global dynamics.

* * *

What is more important is the international image of the United States and the US President now. In the last minute, the Obama administration urged the chairman of the Committee to hold off a vote on the issue, the White House said. Moreover, the CEOs of five aerospace and defense industry giants also urged the lawmakers to reject the measure.

All of them emphasized that the alienation of Turkey will have negative consequences against the interests of the United States in several international issues like the war in Afghanistan, the nuclear crisis with Iran and the stability of Caucasian energy routes.

In the end, the Armenian interests have beaten the US interests. Today's vote has showed what an imperfect political system America has. With the cancerous lobbying in Washington, it is impossible to represent the true interests of the American people. Most of the US Representatives just care either about their own pockets or a few more local votes.

* * *

And what will happen to the big picture?

The Armenian genocide resolution will ultimately be defeated in the House again; but the United States has severely lost her credibility in the eyes of Turkey. And the biggest loser here is President Obama -I'm sorry, I like him, but that's the truth...

Why?

After his public silence, but behind-the-scenes efforts to stop the resolution, Obama has lost both sides.

Now the Armenian diaspora will see him as a hypocrite who isn't loyal to his promises.

Obama's image in Turkey will equally be tarnished, as he didn't make enough efforts to stop the resolution, unlike his hard-working predecessors Bush and Clinton.

Hence, as anti-Americanism in Turkey rises again, the AKP government may be forced to distance itself from the United States, which has been its number-one ally until today.

Upcoming repercussions may be much worse than the Americans predict now.

For instance, I believe that it is definitely not possible anymore that Turkey ratifies the normalization protocols with Armenia before Yerevan does it...

* * *

Shortly, according to the updated public perception in Turkey, the US Congress has once again attempted to label the Turks as a genocidal nation. That's sad, but something in the Congress hall was just tragicomic:

The undecided American Congressmen were being convinced to vote for the resolution by some Armenian lobbyists.

Isn't it odd that the Tashnak, one of the most horrible terror organizations in the history, was one those lobbyists?

PS: In this post, I didn't make any comments about the validity of the Armenian claims, but I guess that everybody should principally agree that it is not the job of national parliaments to rewrite history in any way.

Two Facts From Turkey

* During the recession, the number of unemployed people in Turkey has risen from 2.8 million to almost 3.5 million... The urban unemployment rate is now 16.6 percent, which is a European record.

* Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who refused to resign from his commercial positions long ago, has announced that he earned 562.000 lira (266.000 Euro) in cash in the last two years. His personal fortune has exceeded 2.3 million lira (1.1 million Euro).

Considering these numbers, shouldn't AKP be renamed as No Justice and Personal Development Party?

A Stopped Clock

As an orientalist neo-con (double sin), Daniel Pipes generally sucks; but it seems that this is one of the rare moments that he hits the mark in his analysis:

"At stake is whether the Ergenekon/Balyoz offensives will succeed in transforming the military from an Ataturkist to a Gülenist institution; or whether the AKP’s blatant deceit and over-reaching will spur secularists to find their voice and their confidence. Ultimately the issue is whether sharia will rule Turkey or the country will return to secularism. Turkey’s Islamic importance suggests that the outcome of this crisis has consequences for Muslims everywhere."

Now it should be asked to Mr. Pipes: "Then why had your dear George W. Bush supported AKP feverishly? What did change other than the fact that AKP is at odds with Israel now because it doesn't need the American-Jewish lobby anymore?"

The Little Jerusalem in Istanbul

There was an interesting feature article in Hurriyet a couple of days ago. Its title was "The Little Jerusalem in Istanbul."

The article is about the Fatih district of the city. Here you can see the mosques of ultra-orthodox Muslims, as well as the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, Armenian and Bulgarian churches and synagogues all standing next to each other.

Hundreds of years old coexistence of these religions is an encouraging scene in today's world, but two questions make me worry:

As ultra-orthodox Islamic sects are getting stronger under this moderate government, don't non-Muslims feel increasingly alienated?

And wasn't it the secular Turkish Republic that protected this Ottoman tolerance?