Israel's Merciless Gamble With Human Life

I was planning to write about Eurovision today, but Israel has attacked a Turkish ship.

What can I say about the utter stupidity of the Netanyahu administration? Now it's all up to the Israeli people to distance themselves with this government and its lies.

Because Netanyahu -who can't stop the far-rightists in the government- makes Israel isolated in the world even worse, justifying the allegations of crazy radicals like Iranian leadership, who keep claiming that Israeli Defence Forces are the internationally-recognized tool of the Jewish terrorism. What we've just seen in the Mediterranean was really looking like terrorism.

I was discussing this subject with my friend Matan Drori, the Head of Foreign Desk of the Israeli newspaper Maariv. After he told about the Israeli army's claim that they've found a gun aboard the Turkish ship, I replied with the following words:

"I suspect that Marmara (the Turkish ship) was carrying any weapons. The claim may just be an IDF propaganda. It is more possible that the activists stole the guns of the first IDF soldiers on board. According to my humble opinion, it was legitimate to defend oneself on international waters, because whether the intruder is a national army or a terror organization doesn't really matter; they should be both called as pirates. It's more of an ethical question if using a stolen firearm of a bearer is justified in these circumstances or not. Of course, if it can be independently verified that Marmara was carrying guns, the question will be something else."

At the same time, I told Matan that I don't agree with AKP's foreign policy in general; but it's misleading to believe that their support for a free Palestine is just ideological. I wrote the following paragraph:

"Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has a point. He just wants a completely free region in terms of trade. Davutoglu's Islamo-liberal vision foresees that it will be most favorable for its own national interests to have free trade in the region. So all the stuff about Turkish foreign policy -zero problem with all neighbors- is actually about international trade. From Armenia to Iran, all of AKP's foreign policies adapt to this principle. A free Palestine will also mean that Turkey will dominate a new market. But as I said, AKP's political practice is not ideal as Erdogan is a politician that I'd like to avoid."

(We were patiently waiting for Tayyip Erdogan's first statement. He've just said in Chile that this is an instance of state terror, warning that the Turkish ship in the Israeli port is now an hostage. Surprisingly, his statement was calm and sane.)

I also don't agree with the world views of most of the people in those ships. But it doesn't change the fact that they're civilians. There was no justification for the use of firearms against them. Especially on international waters...

Facing knives and slingshots don't justify shooting on civilians, killing even sleeping people. Israeli forces should have waited until those ships are in Gaza waters. Then they should have forced the ships to reroute without boarding them. What Israel has done is definitely against international law and Turkey can easily win a case in international courts.

I would like to finish with the comments of Micah from Czech Republic, who wrote the following words as a feedback to a Jerusalem Post story about the Israeli travel warning to Turkey, addressing directly the people of Israel:

"Safe Guide to Travel

Speak out against your government, which is trapping all of Israel in a dangerous and self-perpetuating web of fear and lies. This incident is shameful and embarrassing - stand up against it and reclaim dignity for the Israeli people at home and abroad."

Europe Is Keen To Remain Old

UEFA has announced that France will organize Euro 2016 football championship.

Turkey has lost the final with just one vote of the UEFA committee with 13 members, but the result still shows that Europe is not the United States.

While America proves again and again that it's always ready to revitalize itself -from presidential elections to social trends- Europe is showing in every instance that it's keen to remain old.

France had organized this competition two times before. Moreover, they also organized a World Cup, in 1998. The bid of Turkey -that never organized this even- was the best one according to many international pundits.

However, a last minute intervention by the representative of Europe's current retardation, namely Nicolas Sarkozy, has clearly stolen a few votes for France.

Moreover, there was Michel Platini at the helm of UEFA. How the hell can the president of such a big organization announce that he wants his own country to organize this event, while he was supposed to be representing all member countries?

Dunno, it's Europe. It's not a people's continent, but a continent of a biased, prejudiced elite who are stuck in the past.

Awarding Turkey with this organization would not save the world, but it could indeed be the right decision -both in sports and political terms- with some symbolic meaning.

A meaning that may save Europe from the past, preparing it for the future...

A meaning that we've lost with one vote...

The Quote of the Week

"Nothing can be independent from the mode of production, including literature which can easily be controlled by the ideology. In countries like ours, an independent ideology cannot form because of the effect of the global capital. Satin ideologies cannot be independent. You're either with the oppressors or against them.

"In metropolitan countries, they don't forbid thoughts. They censor them through indirect ways; with corporate media, with economy. It's much more different in the periphery. Censor is more direct in such countries. And with a collapsed education system which produces empty-headed people, it's much easier for them..." -- Erhan Göksel

The Last Prophecy of Ergenekon's Latest Victim

Erhan Göksel, the owner of a research and polling corporation in Turkey, was found dead in a hotel in New Jersey last week. While his family has called for an autopsy, American police announced that he died after a heart attack, as he had been operated recently because of his weight.

Göksel was one of the first political analysts in Turkey who predicted the rise of Tayyip Erdogan. Being very close to Ankara circles, he had managed to be successful in other political prophecies as well. However, after starting to criticize AKP a few years ago, he was excommunicated by the government. Ultimately, he stopped talking against AKP after he was arrested as an Ergenekon suspect. Following his release, he left Turkey for New York.

Göksel was one of such people that many can easily label as a conspiracy theorist, but you know, up to some extend even Noam Chomsky can be labeled as one. I'm not arguing that Göksel was as intellectually deep as Chomsky, but his analysis was neither too shallow. He generally had a point, a context and intellectual consistency.

It is sad to see that he died in such a way that can feed other conspiracy theories. I definitely don't believe that he has been killed by someone in his hotel room. However, I indeed see him as another victim of AKP oppression, like Kuddusi Okkir.

Göksel's last prophecy or conspiracy theory may still be relevant today. Before he left for the USA in January, he had told the following words:

"Morton Abramowitz and Zbiegnew Brzezinski, two important names in the diplomatic corps of the Obama administration, have already discarded Erdogan. They see that Erdogan cannot form a one party government anymore. Moreover, Erdogan told President Barack Obama last April that he would pursue to form a strategic alliance with Iran and that was the last straw. Now Americans want 'an AKP without Erdogan' and 'a CHP without Baykal'. A Turkish coalition will be more favorable for the US. Watch Abdullah Gül and the Gülen movement in the following days."

What Is Recep Bey?

So change has come to the Turkish center-left: Kemal Kilicdaroglu has been elected as the new leader of CHP, the main opposition party in Turkey.

"Kilicdaroglu" and "Recep Bey" were two trending topics on Twitter's global scale for a few hours today, surprising many non-Turkish users, who kept asking "What is Recep Bey?"

Recep Bey is the new first name of Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Recep was actually his second name that he never preferred to use. It may be regarded as a decision of brand management on behalf of AKP, as Tayyip is a rarer name. Kilicdaroglu is now addressing Erdogan in a way that he doesn't like -with the name which is much more common, even ordinary, pulling the Prime Minister to the level of us, the mortals.

Erdogan couldn't hide the fact that he's irritated, as he's only talking about CHP nowadays, hinting that he really see the main opposition as a competitive rival in the upcoming elections. And it seems that the Zeitgeist is also against Erdogan.

While the number of journalists who followed CHP's congress was double the number of journalists who followed the last AKP congress, as well as Barack Obama's Turkey visit, Erdogan's shambolic psychology forced him to make errors in his recent speeches. His latest gaffe was about the latest mining accident in Turkey. Erdogan has called the deadly disaster as fate, prompting public anger.

Like I was doubtful before US elections if Obama could bring real change to his country, now I doubt if Kilicdaroglu can make a substantial difference in Turkey's hegemonic ideology. However, his rise is still emancipating, as Recep Bey cannot see himself as a postmodern sultan anymore.

A Meeting With Ban Ki-moon

I had a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today.

Well, it's kinda cool to tell about it with such wording, but actually it was not an interview.

It was just a round-table meeting in Conrad Istanbul with seven more Turkish journalists, as well as three more UN officials.

The Secretary-General was in Turkey to take part in Somalia Conference in Istanbul. For half an hour, we had the opportunity to ask questions mainly about Iran and Cyprus issues.

What are my impressions?

I felt that Ban Ki-moon is such a sincere, well-meant human being. However, I believe that Kofi Annan was much more open and somehow braver.

Why?

After I asked a question about the fresh statement of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Ban Ki-moon evidently staggered. Firstly, he said that he couldn't endorse Davutoglu's statement. Then he paused and admitted that he needed to learn about all the details and consult his advisers before making any comment at all. Finally, Under-Secretary-General Lynn Pascoe intervened to say that the UN wouldn't make any comment about Davutoglu's statement, because it's not a party in Cyprus negotiations. Ban Ki-moon didn't add anything.

Because of the limited time, I didn't elaborate, but I just thought: "Wait, isn't the UN involved in Cyprus issue? Wasn't the last complete proposal for a settlement titled by the very name of the previous Secretary-General? What about the UN Peacekeepes in Cyprus? And doesn't Davutoglu refer to all nations of the world, including the members of the UN, while making his new offer? Why can't the Secretary-General of this organization tell anything about this opening?"

Maybe it's only my false perception, but I believe that Ban Ki-moon is too dependent on some of the greatest powers of the international system. It seems that he can't risk contradicting with -especially- the White House. It may be considered understandable, because he was elected through a delicate balance which favored him in the end, mainly thanks to the support of the United States. However, such high-level timidity brings about the potential to shadow his judgment in many other issues, too.

I don't generally pass judgment on people after one mere meeting and I may be wrong about Ban Ki-moon, whose diplomacy and politics career is longer than my whole life up till now. Nevertheless, I have ground to make a comparison, as I also had the opportunity to meet Kofi Annan in Cyprus in another brief occasion. In 2003, it was his heyday with all the Annan Plan hubbub right before the referanda... From what I had seen in him there, I believe that Annan would give another, much more convincing -and confident- answer to my question if he sat right in front of me today. Ban Ki-moon has disappointed me a bit.

Burqa and the Colonial France

Turkey commemorates the start of the Turkish War of Independence today.

The role of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in this war was mainly about transforming local Anatolian resistance into a national army, fighting against occupying Greek, French, Armenian, British and Italian armies. It was literally a miracle to win this war in four years in the face of such superior allied forces.

The first bullet fired in the eastern front before the Turkish War of Independence tells us a story that relates to our day. This story is also about an anti-burqa harassment in a Turkish city that was on the verge of becoming a French colony.

Here is the Sütçü İmam Incident from Wikipedia:

"On 29 October 1919, French forces entered Maraş, accompanied by French Colonial Forces and French Armenian Legion troops. The Armenian Legion, comprising 2000 armed auxiliaries entered the city the day after, on 30 October.

"According to converging versions, on the night of 31 October, three women who were coming out of a public bath were intercepted by an Armenian from the Legion and harassed and molested. The soldier attempted to open the veil of the women stating, 'This is no longer the land of the Turks, you cannot walk around with a veil in French territory'.

"The women started to scream and asked for help. A neighbor, Çakmakcı Sait, who ran forth without carrying a weapon was shot to death by the Armenian Legion soldiers. Soon after, Sütçü İmam opened fire on the Armenians, killing one of the soldiers and seriously wounding another. The tension sparked by these incidents increased gradually and led to total urban warfare in Maraş as of February 1920. Maraş was liberated by Turks on February 11th."

Do they count those Armenians who volunteered for the French army and got killed during the Turkish resistance as the victims of the so-called genocide?

And that Armenian girl, who refused to dance with the French commander by stating that "she can't dance as long as a Turkish flag is on the Maraş city walls", prompting the French legion to replace it with a French flag...

Do they count her while making a full account of Armenian civilians who were forcefully deported to Ottoman Syria in order to stop them collaborating with invading armies?..

I'll Vote for This Kurdish Politician

I generally vote for the underdogs, the outsiders, the fringes. The parties that can never manage to win any seats in the parliament...

However, in the next elections, I'll probably vote for CHP for the first time in my life.

Following the latest scandal that resulted with the resignation of Deniz Baykal, the leader of the main opposition party CHP, I was cautious about all of the prospective candidates. Kemal Kilicdaroglu was one of them.

At first, I thought that Kilicdaroglu lacked the leadership skills which were necessary to be a prime minister. It seems that I was wrong. After watching his first speeches as the only official candidate now, I'm convinced that Kilicdaroglu may actually mean real change in the way that Bülent Ecevit of 70s' Turkey and Barack Obama of 2000s' America had once promised.

I am a Sunni Turk, but I can comfortably vote for Kilicdaroglu, who is an Alevi Kurd.

Of course, firstly CHP must prove again that it is ready to brace for change.

Turkey as a Trans-Democracy

We know that the members of the parliament and some other state officials are not equal with us in one way. They can only be prosecuted according to the legal terms of parliamentary immunity in their country.

What about the following example, say, in the United States?

A Muslim Congressman gives a speech in a Virginia mosque one day and tells the following words:

"If Obama administration continues current policies, I swear to Allah that the nation of Islam will not only keep up with guerrilla warfare, but it will also turn the American life into hell."

Or let's say, a Basque member of the Spanish parliament tells the equivalent of these words in San Sebastian...

Is it freedom of speech?

I'm talking about this issue again because it happens in Turkey.

Following the closure of DTP, the biggest Kurdish party, because of its allegged links to PKK, a terror organization, its former members of parliaments are now under the umbrella of a new party, BDP.

Nezir Karabas, Bitlis MP of BDP (picture), spoke in his hometown yesterday and told exactly the following words:

"If these policies continue, I swear that the Kurdish people will not only keep up with the guerrilla warfare, but they also turn life into hell. They will kneel in front of Kurds."

If you ask me, these words should be enough for anyone to be arrested in any democracy, as they clearly incite violence, racial hatred, etc...

However, Turkey is something more than a democracy now.

A trans-democracy.

In this system, even people who want this democracy down, including seperatists and Islamists, can not only voice their opinion, but also organize their violent rage in political forms.

To my American friends who complain that they don't have a strong democracy anymore:

Come to Turkey. We have more than you can ever imagine.

Turco-Greek Shadow Play

I fail to understand why Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's latest trip to Greece was historic.

In reality, it was nothing but a spectre.

Like in this photo that Erdogan resembles Hacivat and Yorgo Papendreu, his Greek counterpart whom I see as a great statesman, was like Karagiozis...

Insincere words of friendship underline the vague competition between two leaders and their countries, producing nothing new.

An outdated competition that is just ridicilous now...

They're not international heroes.

They are just national walk-ons, setting up the stage of a deceased art:

Shadow puppetry.

No Apology

Surprisingly, before Turkish newspapers could do it, a British newspaper, Daily Telegraph, has found the Turk who shagged Twitter.

However, Bora Kirca, 17, has disappointed me by apologising for causing a “complication” to the microblogging site.

Why, Bora?

You didn't do anything wrong. In fact, considering the fact that you didn't even sell your discovery to Twitter, you've done something sublime. As I've explained in the previous post, your trick was something useful for our society.

The Turk Who Shagged Twitter Has Confirmed Marx

A bug that was discovered by a Turkish user has triggered a global storm on Twitter last night.

The story of the discovery is as interesting as the international media buzz.

I'm more interested in the reactions of some celebrities, after Twitter took temporary measures to stop the hack. It was fun to watch these celebrities, including Demi Moore, Justin Bieber, Megan Fox and Kim Kardashian, getting panicked after losing thousands of their followers in a second. More surprisingly, their followers also get panicked, voicing their despair.

It was kind of a massive psychological experiment on Attention Withdrawal Syndrome or Hikikomori. In the end, the experiment has confirmed Marx’s analysis of being a King in Das Capital:

"A King is only King because his subjects loyally think and act like he is King. Yet, at the same time, the people will only believe he is King if they believe that this is a deeper Truth about which they can do nothing."

Thank you, Turkish hacker.

Resign and Redesign: Is Fecit, Cui Prodest

Deniz Baykal, the leader of Turkey's main opposition party, CHP, has surprisingly resigned following the circulation of a video purporting to show him having an affair.

Who did shoot the explosive video, who did broadcast it online after waiting for several years and is the man in that grainy footage really Baykal, who has been leading CHP for more than two decades?

These questions are still not answered, but Baykal has pointed out to a government conspiracy. He has ruled out other theories, including the ones that blame it on the Sarigul movement in CHP or a pro-AKP Islamist brotherhood.

Anyway, this is surely a defining moment for Turkish politics. In a few weeks, Turkey will stage a critical referandum on constitutional reform, while CHP will be electing a new leader in its congress which was planned long before Baykal's resignation. As the 72-year-old social democrat leader said, "Now the people who would like to redesign CHP will have an opportunity."

The new design will determine the future of Turkey, as well as the whole region around it. Soon, we may learn about the identities of those successful conspirators, but now we can only ask: Cui bono?

The answer is in the headline.

AKP, Foreign Agents or Sarigul?

It seems that I was wrong about the scandal video which shows some scenes from the private life of Deniz Baykal, the leader of CHP, main opposition party.

The initial reaction of CHP officials has hinted that the tape was authentic. It may be edited, but it was not really manipulated. The man was really Deniz Baykal and the woman was really an MP from his party.

Actually, the point is not about the question whether it was Baykal or not. Even the question whether Baykal should resign or not doesn't matter. The lesson here is the fact that the plotter has succeeded again. Turkey is a step closer to a dictatorship of fear.

Read the reactions in the Turkish media today. Even the most ardent supporters of Baykal turned against him now, asking for his resignation. I also believe that he should resign, but it wouldn't be the first article I would write if I had a column in a national daily. First, I would point out the real scandal here.

The scandal is not about his unforgivable mistake of mixing his private life with his political life. The real scandal is the fact that this video is almost a decade old and some people waited for the most suitable time to serve it online. And that's how they do social engineering now...

But who dunnit? Who are these social engineers? The government? An Islamist brotherhood? A clique in CHP? Or foreign intelligence services?

One scenario has attracted my attention. It links the tape to a mysterious meeting between Baykal and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan which occurred seven years ago.

Neither of these leaders spoke about that meeting then. Baykal had strangely backed Erdogan by supporting AKP's offer to amend the constitution, making him legally eligible to be elected as an MP, even after being convicted because of inciting hatred.

According to this theory, the tape was recorded eight years ago. At that time, some members of the governing AKP acquired it and started to blackmail Baykal. And then the infamous bilateral meeting occurred. Baykal toned down his voice after this meeting. His way of opposition actually served the interests of the government.

Conspiracy theorists don't reveal who really did it now, but there are various scenarios.

The first one states that it was Erdogan -or some AKP officials- who finally decided to violate the secret bilateral accord in this sensitive time that Turkey heads into a critical referendum.

The second scenario argues that Erdogan was also surprised after the scandalous video was revealed through a pro-government, Islamist website. He ordered it to be removed right after he learned about it. He still wants to stick by his secret promise to Baykal.

And behind-the-scenes perpetrator of this privacy crime could be an opposing CHP figure, like Mustafa Sarigul, or a foreign intelligence service who wants to see change in Turkey and CHP, possibly through Sarigul again.

It is interesting to see that these theories are not the products of a fringe imagination. People like Zülfü Livaneli, an artist and a prominent member of CHP, also supports them. And in Turkey, you need to be careful in choosing what and who you should support. Otherwise, you may face your own ass on a video-sharing website one day.

When Islamists Conspire KGB-style Honey Traps

Turkey has arrived in the crossroads.

From the New York Times:

"Turkey’s Parliament early on Friday approved a bill introduced by the governing Islamist-rooted AK Party (AKP) to overhaul the Constitution, clearing the way for a referendum that secularists have pledged to try to block in court. The bill, which would overhaul the judiciary and the role of the military, will now go to President Abdullah Gul for his signature, after which a referendum can be held within 60 days. The main opposition party has said that it will appeal to the Constitutional Court to block the referendum, which it says would cement the governing AK Party’s grip on power."

I think that the bill is a poisonous candy.

There are several genuinely democratic improvements introduced with the bill. The most important one is that the officials of the military coup in 1980 can now be tried in courts. They won't have any legal immunity anymore.

However, it seems that such points in the bill are there just to hide the real agenda of the governing AKP. The bill will virtually abolish the principle of separation of powers, submitting all the ropes of the checks and balances system into the hands of the Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, an Islamist-rooted, authoritarian leader.

Andrew Arato, whose latest work is about constitutions, also thinks the bill is all about AKP's instrumentalism. As Erdogan once said, "Democracy is just a train. You hop off when you arrive in the station."

So who's left to stop AKP to succeed in his legal power grab as almost all the system is already seized by them? Of course, the main opposition.

I've never voted for CHP, the main opposition party, but now they seem like the last defender of our social, secular, modern republic. So it is not a surprise to see that CHP becomes an increasingly annoying enemy for the Islamist media that unconditionally supports the government.

Vakit, a so-called religious newspaper and a notorious misinformation source, broadcast an explosive video on its website last night. It was really interesting to see that they can do such provocative journalism, right after they have been condemned to pay 308,000 euro in compensation to some generals that they insulted.

The video, which was removed in 30 minutes after huge reaction, was allegedly showing Deniz Baykal, the leader of CHP, having sex with the wife of one of the MPs of his party. The graphic quality of the video was so poor that it was impossible to verify visually if the man was really Baykal or not. In the digital age, isn't a bit dubious?

What more interesting is the fact that sex scenes in the video were not censored. With the close-ups of the female genitalia, it was simply a pornographic material. And it was online on the website of a pious newspaper which has been censoring even the naked knees and elbows of women.

So here is our Islamist honey-trap, like we see in Russia where FSB (the new KGB) sets up similar scenes to denigrate the opposition figures. There is a difference, of course: FSB can actually entrap those man, while our Islamists can only produce fake tapes.

Following the latest Katyagate, it was alleged that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was the mastermind of the conspiracy. I don't believe that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is behind the Vakitgate conspiracy, but I've heard that the scandal may have links to AKP. It is said that a former AKP mayor, who owns the biggest Anatolian local TV, was pressing for the broadcast of this political porn last night by phoning the managers of other TV channels.

I hope the judiciary, if it won't be reformed by AKP then, will solve the riddle, 'cause we're on a critical crossroads.

PS: I'll be in Diyarbakir for a couple of days. I won't post until Monday.

The American Dream

2003: George W. Bush, then the President of the United States, invaded Iraq. The reasons for the invasion were "to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. No WMD stockpiles were found in Iraq.

2007-2009: The Great Recession is triggered by an insolvent United States banking system in an economy where massive war-time spendings created a black-hole in a budget that was once a model for all developed countries.

2010: According to American prosecutors, Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born, naturalized American citizen, attempted to fire-bomb the Times Square on May 1. During the recession, Shahzad, who is now being charged with using a weapon of mass destruction, has lost his mortgaged house in Connecticut. The real estate broker who had helped him to buy the house remembers that Shahzad did not like President George W. Bush or the Iraq War.

The Turkish Street Fighter: Hakan

Even though I am an early member of the Computer Generation, I still get surprised to see that today's children enjoy the modern versions of the video-games of my childhood.

Street Fighter is one of them. In the late 80s, I was playing this game with my brother on our Amiga 500 (then Amiga 1200 and the PC). And if we were away from home, say, for a summer vacation with our family, we were doing everything to find a local arcade with this game.

Street Fighter is still on the market, thanks to new game consoles like Playstation 3. The latest version of the game, Super Street Fighter IV, has been released a few days ago. The game -which has been received quite positively- has got a feature that my childhood ego could only dream of: A Turkish character whose skin has turned to red after fighting under the sun as he soaked up a lot of olive oil.

From Wikipedia:

"Hakan (ハカン?) is a Turkish oil wrestler. He is the second new addition to Super Street Fighter IV. The father of seven young daughters, Hakan is also the president of an olive oil company, who seeks to create the perfect olive oil. His fighting style is based on 'yagli güres' and revolves around him coating himself in oil, making his body slippery. This gives him an edge as he can slide across the ground and launch his opponents by squeezing them through his bulging muscles. He is apparently old friends with E. Honda, who is his fighting rival in Super Street Fighter IV."

Up to now, this post serves nothing; as any person who is not interested in videogames (as well as their social significance as a new media) would find it irrelevant and any videogame fan already learned about Hakan at least a couple months ago.

With the following part, I'll try to satisfy both parties. In the weekend edition of Hürriyet, there was an interview which I believe that many people have missed. Hakan Gence, a Hürriyet correspondent and a namesake of the new fighter, interviewed Ono-san, the Capcom guy who created the Turkish oil wrestler.

Here is a translation of the most interesting part about Hakan from the mouth of his creator:

How did you decide to add a Turkish character?

I wanted to add the game some true Street Fighter characters of the caliber of Dhalsim and Blanka. So that this game would be the climax of the series. I ordered my team to collect as many interesting videos as possible. One of them was about the Turkish oil wrestling. I had almost forgotten about this fighting technique, although I have had heard about it when former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi had visited Turkey in 2006. Koizumi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan had talked about oil wrestling and sumo then. In Japan, we love Turkish kebab, but we still don't know enough about oil wrestling.

In Internet forums, it is being said that some Armenians reacted angrily against the installment of a Turkish character. What do you think?

Since March, I've been traveling around the world to publicize Hakan. I saw that everybody loved him. I had wanted him to be a very different, unforgettable character. Now we all love him.

How did you decide about his moves?

We made comprehensive research about oil wrestling. Then we adapted the moves into the game by exaggerating them. There was also a move that the wrestler sticks his hand into the lederhosen of his rival. We couldn't incorporate this move as it might not be an appropriate content for children.

Can you give us some more details about Hakan's background?

He is the president of a company which produces olive oil in Edirne, the home of the Kirkpinar oil wrestling tournament. Oil wrestling is Hakan's hobby. In order to create a better olive oil, he decides to travel the world. He loves his wife and children. In the next game, Hakan's wife will be managing an ice-cream franchise and Hakan's new special move will be a sticky ice-cream attack.

Did you think of adding another Turkish character?

If there were one, it could be a Turkish chef, fighting with his meals and kitchenware, as a matching rival to El Fuerte.

A Blow to 'AKP Democracy'

Turkey's parliament rejected today a government proposal to make it harder to ban political parties, in a surprise blow to the ruling Islamist-rooted AKP and its plans to reform the constitution, Reuters has just reported.

Ten AKP MPs didn't vote for the amendment, rebuffing Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's party order. At this point, let's remember the AKP-style democracy with a recent photo, showing how the party leaders check each MPs' secret ballots one by one:

As long as AKP is the government, Turkey can't have a better democracy whatever kind of reform it can do. As a Turkish proverb goes, the fish stinks from the head.

Look, Hitler's Mustache; Let's Change the Subject!

CHP, the main opposition party in Turkey, has criticized the governing AKP by linking Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's political posture to Adolf Hitler.

"If they really want to see somebody resembling Hitler, then they need to look at the photo of their former chairman. He is smiling at them as a wanna-be Führer with his Hitler mustache", Erdogan reacted today. He meant İsmet Inönü, Turkey's second president and one of the founders of CHP.

But Inönü's Hitler mustache?

Being five years older than Hitler, Inonu was sporting his Hitler mustache in Ottoman battlefields in 1910s, long before the Führer had become internationally famous.

So it seems that this is another attempt by Erdogan to manipulate the news agenda. He can't attack Atatürk, because he is way more popular than Erdogan, so he chose a more controversial figure, related to the opposition, preferably a dead one.

One of the closest aides of Erdogan made some confessions about this tactic today. In an interview for Hürriyet, Yalcin Akdogan told the following words about Erdogan:

"The Prime Minister sometimes comes forward and starts a polemic. The public may perceive it as if he criticizes a certain person. In reality, he does it to change the agenda or to give a hidden message to a third person. For example, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was planning to force us into a defensive mode by voicing the privileged partnership offer during her upcoming visit to Ankara. Thanks to the surprising attack by the Prime Minister, we started a debate about the possibility of Turkish high schools in Germany and that was the only issue discussed during the whole trip. In the end, the Germans had to take a defensive stance instead. So if there are heated discussions on the horizon, the Prime Minister may choose to shadow them with irrelevant polemics. The Prime Minister has a man with many game plans."

So maybe now we can understand the irrelevant and misguiding Hitler-mustache polemic, too.

But why did Erdogan want to shift the subject now? What's the next heated discussion?

I believe that there are two answers:

1) Terror organization PKK kills more and more Turkish soldiers every day. The government is increasingly under public pressure. You can observe it in the soldier funerals all around the country.

2) The second round of debates about the constitutional reform package started in the parliament today. Erdogan managed to convince the opposition about all amendments but three of them. The rest of the package will probably have to approved by a referendum.

So Hitler's mustache is the perfect tool to waive these subjects. "Forget your slain son, don't listen to what the opposition tells you about the dangers of the reform package, just vote for it in the referendum", Erdogan simply tells the public.

And then, if this reform package passes, we may see the real Hitler mustache, I fear...