Botched Cargo Terror vs. Delivered PKK Terror

The United States and the European Union set the world in an uproar for some primitive explosives in two cargo parcels which were sent from Yemen. Agence France Press has reported that "all signs of a foiled plot to put explosives on US-bound planes point to the Al-Qaeda terror network."

Actually, the explosives could have easily been planted by any intelligence agency in the world, but the international news agencies publish the statements of American officials without verifying them. So the public in these countries are ready to bomb Yemen (more efficiently) now.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber blew himself up at Taksim Square this morning, precisely eleven hours after I wandered around there.

Only the attacker was killed, while several police officers and passersby got injured. It doesn't trivialize the horrific attack, though. I could be dead today, but we moved on, even though we're -once again- terrorized.

With this stark contrast between an amplified terror threat and a real attack, it is even more shocking to see the usual double standards in the American and the Western European media.

Like always, several news outlets which define groups like Al Qaida, ETA or IRA as terrorist organizations refrain to do so to use this term for PKK, resorting to a hypocritical version of unbiased editorial policy. I can even understand this. However, there is no way that I can understand why none of these news outlets at least reminds their readers the fact that PKK is in the terror list of the US, the EU and Turkey.

All in all, it seems that PKK remains to be a priviliged terror organization and the Turkish people should be proud of not losing the war against such a group, which gets support from the US and several EU countries, broadcasts its propaganda freely from Denmark and trains its militants in northern Iraq.

Democracy Is Coming To Turkey?

The good news: Youtube is going to be accessible in Turkey after a two-year-old ban.

Democracy is coming to Turkey?

Slow down.

The Islamist establishment didn't do anything about it.

Youtube has simply surrendered to the AKP government, deleted all the content which was offensive according to the Turkish Penal Code, hence paved the way.

But look at the other hand as well:

AKP's Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek has explained the real reason of the record tax hike on alcoholic beverages:

"For us, the revenue is not important. The health of our citizens is important."

Anyway, we have Youtube, right?

I repeat: Slow down.

While heralding the good news, Communication Minister Binali Yildirim also reminded that Youtube doesn't pay any tax in Turkey, so it can be banned again.

A new, more democratic generation is growing in Turkey, thanks to AKP.

Because of such limitations by the Islamist authoritarianism, these kids will be all alcoholics, bootlegging like they circumvent the Youtube ban now.

I always say:

AKP is hazardous.

Institutionalizing Racism

It seems that Geert Wilders (left), a racist Dutch politician, now pulls the strings of Mark Rutte (right), the Prime Minister of the Netherlands.

Racism is everywhere, in every country and in each layer of our daily life.

What really pisses me off is how they institutionalize racism in several European countries nowadays by turning democracy into a mere dictatorship of majority.

Tolerating far-rightists by resorting to freedom of expression and by describing them with more permissible adjectives like populist and even xenophobic is just a way of doing it.

On the other hand, not all EU countries with a surging far-right movement exhibit these symptoms. For instance, as I've written before, the Swedish racists are also on the rise; but I don't believe that the Swedish democracy is under threat. Soon or late, they'll overcome this problem, which is a natural consequence of the current immigration trends that are socially painful, but economically necessary.

However, many other EU countries are systematically institutionalizing racism in a way that the Old Continent hadn't witnessed since the Nazis. Unfortunately, the Netherlands is one of these countries.

The problem with the Netherlands is not Geert Wilders, who denigrates Islam with lies and exaggerations. The real problem is how other Dutch parties and the Dutch society as a whole are surrendering to Wilders-style masked racism. A fringe politician can voice a racist opinion in any form. However, if this politician becomes a political king-maker and even the Prime Minister of his country starts to voice similar opinions, then it means that the problem is maturing into a similar one that Germany faced in early 1930s. We all know what had happened afterwards.

The latest remark by Mark Rutte, the new Prime Minister of the Netherlands, is such a dangerous sign:

Rutte told yesterday that he would have had a different attitude to the dual nationality of one of his junior ministers if she had had a Turkish, rather than a Swedish passport as well as a Dutch one.

Now this is not only a grave example of institutionalized discrimination in the Netherlands, but it is also an example of top-level racism, because Rutte has singled out the Turks, who had served as Dutch ministers in the past.

Imagine that US President Barack Obama or his predecessor George W. Bush saying that it is OK to be a Canadian-American dual citizen, but not Mexican-American. What would happen in America then? Such a remark would even cost him his office there.

The main problem about the EU lies here. Europe has become the land of comparative politics, not qualitative. In America, Rutte could be instantly kicked out of political game; but in Europe, he is still a prime minister as he is normal in the EU; because comparing to Geert Wilders, he is still a moderate.

With such a logic, you can rehabilitate even Mussolini's image -as we are seeing in Italy nowadays- as long as you compare him with Hitler. I believe that there is a similar level of distinction between Rutte and Wilders.

Desperate Turkish Zombies

Istanbul was one of 26 cities worldwide that zombies walked around yesterday.

Of course, even zombies walk the Turkish way here.

They needed to confront some police officers who were keen to prevent another unauthorized protest march.

"I admit that I support the opposition, but mercy on me," one zombie begged, felling at the feet of an officer.

Living (dead) under AKP is hard even for zombies...

P.S: I hope that it's obvious that I'm making fun of my usual anti-government tone here... No zombies were actually arrested in Istanbul yesterday. Everything was staged. The AKP government remains as democratic as it is.

To Wear A Headscarf or Not To Wear It

As it gets harder and harder for any journalist to work in Turkey, there are more and more indications, showing that the current government only means that the boot is on the other foot: The freedom of expression of an ordinary Turk is still under pressure.

The military-oriented, secular and neo-liberal system which was established by the 1982 coup d'etat is going for good. However, it is being replaced by another neo-liberal, but equally repressive political dominator, which is the civilian-oriented Islamist system.

Just one fresh example:

Until now, the Islamist (not Islamic IMHO) headscarf, which is called "turban" in Turkey, was banned in public universities. I wrote in the past that even political symbols should be allowed in universities as long as they don't belong to violent organizations. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan admitted that this kind of headscarf was a political symbol and it is being abused.

The AKP government has abolished the ban recently, guaranteeing that the students who don't wear headscarves will not be pressurized. However, some students in Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul organized a peaceful protest against the government last week and now 26 of them are banned to enter the campus until the investigation is over. It means that they will fail in their class because of compulsory attendance.

One of the students was beaten by the police after he unfurled an anti-government banner during President Abdullah Gul's visit to open the university earlier this semester. The head of the university was just appointed by Gul, although he got only half of the votes that his predecessor scored in the latest elections. He also didn't have any experience in university administration.

And today, Erdogan criticized the women who don't wear headscarf, saying that they don't defend their fellows who wear it...

Is it a democratizing trend in Turkey, which several people still defends, or is it a revanchist one?

We Sit Well With Power

We, as Turks, sit too much and that's a problem.

In Turkey, the government charged 30 billion dollars of additional tax from the public since 1999. It was a temporary measure to rebuild the east Marmara region following a catastrophic earthquake then. The government still collects this tax and nobody reacts. Imagine what could happen in the United States in similar conditions...

Or take France: Millions of people march to stop Sarkozy administration which tries to reform the social security system in an unpopular way. In Turkey, we had far worse laws ratified without confronting any protest marches.

From the United Kingdom to Germany, privatization decisions of governments are always countered with massive protests. But the AKP government has sold the public telecom to Lebanese investors for a price which is just four times greater than the annual revenue of the same company and the Turkish streets were still calm. Imagine what could happen in any other country after the sale of such a strategic public asset to a foreign firm with this bargain price.

"The March of the Republic" was just an unbelievable exception in this sense. On the other hand, it doesn't change the fact that this nation likes to sit and watch, instead of act and react.

Osman Hamdi Bey, the Ottoman antidote of Orientalism, was probably the first Turkish intellectual who observed aforesaid shortcoming of our culture:

"We are a sitting nation. Take our daily conversations. If somebody asks about our father, we say that he's well, sitting at home. In Turkish, you should say, "we sit in x neighborhood," to tell where you reside. When they ask you where you are going, you say that you're going to Ahmet Bey's house to sit. During holidays, we always like to sit at home. The teacher says that his students should sit and behave."

Maybe we need a civil rights movement, not for women or a minority, but for the majority to learn that standing up, protesting the government and marching for a better democracy is the start of journey to be civil. Otherwise, the culture of sitting and being obedient will remain as an abusing tool of today's anti-democratic mindset of the neo-liberal, Islamist ruling class.

A painting by Osman Hamdi: An Ottoman man, sitting on an ottoman...

Three Dots on WikiLeak's Iraq Map

As the WikiLeaks splashed almost 400,000 secret US army field reports on the war in Iraq, the Guardian website mapped every death.

There are three strange dots in Turkey, which some show the Iraqi and American troops who were killed in action.

Is it a mistake by the American troops who had written the wrong coordinates on some secret files?

Is it a mistake by WikiLeaks or the Guardian editors?

Or was Turkey in the war zone?

Turkish Civilians Who Were Killed By Armenians

Whenever I try to counter the untruthful arguments of the Armenian genocide industry, I always ask myself: Do I violate the sanctity of thousands of Armenians who really died in the tragic events of 1915?

I suspect that the Armenian lobbyists ever asked the same question for thousands of Turkish civilians who were being killed by the Armenians during the same period. This historical fact renders these tragic events more of a civil war, instead of the undocumented genocide that the Armenian lobby tries to prove.

Here is a recent discovery:

Twenty-one experts from Kars Museum and University of Caucasia have just revealed another mass grave in Halil Efendi district of Kars, eastern Turkey. It is documented that the human remains in the grave belonged to more than three hundred Turkish villagers, who were tortured and killed by the Armenian Tashnak gangs in 1915. (photo above)

One should have a conscience not only for an ethnicity, but for all humanity...

Crossing the Bridge or Collapsing With It

There was another Eurasia Marathon in Istanbul yesterday.

I couldn't participate because I was working, but I wouldn't probably do it anway as it seemed to risky to me.

When it's as sunny as yesterday, the participation is always very high. More than 100.000 people were running from Asia to Europe, including the impersonations of Elvis Presley and Nasreddin Hoca. You see what a multicultural city Istanbul is, Angela Merkel?!

I fear of running on the Bosphorus Bridge with so many people, since I watched the Mothman Prophecies and the historic video of the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940.

I'm not paranoid. I just know a bit about physical concepts like aeroelastic flutter and resonance. So such a concern can be called scientific in this instance, too.

Ahmet Vefik Alp, a Turkish architect and a former candidate for Istanbul mayor, has just said that the Bosphorus Bridge could have collapsed yesterday. Check out the video below, see how the bridge was swinging and decide yourself if it's normal or dangerous:

Maybe it was the last time that they allowed all the people at once on the bridge...

Generals Without Epaulets

Kıvanç Özcan, a graduate student at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, wrote an article for Haaretz today. He says:

"Some outsiders have asked whether the referendum strengthens the role of Islam in the state. It doesn’t. But a creeping theocracy is not the only concern of Turkish democrats. The changes dictated by the September 12 referendum increase the powers of the executive and legislative branches over the judiciary, and that weakens the separation of powers.

Democratic maturity necessitates respect for the referendum results. But democratic maturity and responsible citizenship require speaking up as well. The results of the vote may be a victory for Erdogan, but they give the Turkish republic no cause for celebration. The crowds applauding Erdogan and his government were actually cheering a new set of generals − without the epaulets."

Please read the whole article here.

The Portrait of the Cartoonist as a Political Prostitute

A cartoon, which is published in a pro-government Turkish newspaper today, summarizes the latest posts here very well.

It underlines how pro-government opinion leaders (including some cartoonists as seen in this example) have created a bogeyman that they call the deep state as a smokescreen for the shortcomings of AKP and how neoliberal Islamism has revealed its unscrupulousness in the face of Chilean miners' rescue.

The cartoon reads: "There is much to learn from the rescue operation in Chile."

The rescuer in the capsule calls the man in the depth of the mine, who sits listlessly behind a desk that reads the deep state: "Come on!"

This is art in the service of the government and it pays back good for the artist, Salih Memecan.

Eat your heart out, Banksy!

'We Could Rescue Chilean Miners in Three Days'

While the world is watching the amazing rescue operation for the miners in Chile, Turkey is still entrapped inside the tragicomedy of neoliberal Islamism.

Here is how Ömer Dinçer, the Minister of Labor and Social Security in the AKP government, commented on the Chilean miracle:

"The success of the Chilean government is being exaggerated. Their operation is delayed because of a simple reason. The capsule that they initially designed didn't fit the rescue shaft. What a simple mistake! They are so late. In similar conditions, we could rescue all the miners in three days."

I wouldn't believe that Dinçer told these words if I didn't read them on several reliable sources, although it's clear that he really uttered these absurd remarks and he did it seriously.

We may expect such bullshit from the representative of a mercilessly neoliberal Islamist government, but does he think that we're all amnesiac?

How come the AKP government, which couldn't haul up the dead bodies of Black Sea miners since a May 17 methane-gas explosion at a state-owned mine, rescue the Chilean miners in three days?

Don't make me laugh.

Turkish Democracy and AKP's Intelligentsia

Intellectuals, opinion leaders or columnists who are close to the government circles in Turkey have a sickening way.

For them, if something bad happens in Turkey, it cannot be linked to AKP, the government party. There is a more convenient scapegoat: The deep state or the establishment.

By blaming such a virtual bogeyman, they actually don't do anything to change the situation. The function of these intellectuals, hence, is just relieving the government.

Take Mustafa Akyol, who writes for the English version of Hürriyet, as well as the unashamedly AKP-leaning newspaper Star. In his latest column, Akyol twists the facts to protect AKP, once again. For Akyol, the responsible side of the shameful Youtube ban in Turkey is the establishment and the courts; not the government. I'll just quote two reader comments to present you the counter point, which is closer to the reality IMHO:

Jack's Puzzled Brain: Mustafa, why do you always try to defend AKP? Hasn't AKP been ruling this country for seven years? Don't they have the mandate to change the laws? Even the judges told they must ban these sites because of these laws that they also find stupid... Why do you always blame a virtual "deep state" while ignoring the mistakes of this government as it is clear that they don't want to get rid of these bans, because they also use them when they need it... To conclude: In Turkey, two different kinds of authoritarianism clash. AKP's neo-Islamism and the Kemalism of CHP's old guards...

Bugs Bunny: AKP made and passed the law three years ago and (President Abdullah) Gül voted for it, too. Therefore AKP are to blame for the situation. Nobody else. Akyol, what do you think about the fact the Directorate of Religious Affairs can close down pages without involving a judge. What is your comment to the ban of (websites related to) Richard Dawkins?

* * *

AKP has been governing this country since 2002. It has been the majority in the parliament since the beginning. Now it pulls the string of everything, including the Supreme Court and the military. So these so-called liberal, so-called democrats shouldn't fool people anymore, especially the foreigners who don't know much about Turkish politics.

Whatever happens in Turkey today falls under the political responsibility of the government. Those who still propagate false news as if this government democratizes Turkey must stop lying. They should just remember what happen to university students who protest this government reminds you of the Iranian regime, not a democratic one:

When President Abdullah Gül was speaking of how they democratize Turkey at Yildiz Technical University last week, some students who unfurled a banner outside were being beaten by the police, mercilessly (the picture above). The banner was just reading: "Free Education For All."

The students are actually lucky that they are not in prison now. Because two of their peers who dared to make a similar protest during a speech of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan last year are still in prison. All of them are being tried now and they could be imprisoned for 15 years, if found guilty.

So I actually don't fucking care about the politics of AKP, CHP or others. I just mind those students whose lives are stolen by the government, whatever their political views are. And when the government oppression is being systematically whitewashed by intellectuals, I lose my temper. Thank God that I still have conscience to raise my voice.

How AKP Kicked Kusturica Out (With Their Usual Hypocrisy)

Put that cigar out, Kusturica, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan doesn't like it.

Famous director Emir Kusturica has quit the jury of Antalya Film Festival after coming under fire over his alleged remarks (which can partly be found here and here) about the Bosnian war.

Kusturica is not one of my favorite directors. However, the reason that I don't like him much is not because he disdains the genocide of Bosnian Muslims. I don't like him, because like Orhan Pamuk does with the Turkish culture, he reproduces and packages an imaginary Yugoslav reality (the land of a lunatic carnival) for the gaze of the Western audience. For me, an obvious error is more pardonable than an insidious sin.

But why was Kusturica invited to Turkey and how did he end up kicked out? I'll try to summarize the facts about the issue in a way that no English source has done yet, as far as I see on the web right now.

* Antalya Mayor Mustafa Akaydin had invited Kusturica to be a member of the jury of the film festival. Akaydin is a member of CHP, the main opposition party.

* After Kusturica has come, some members of AKP, the government party which has recently lost Antalya's mayor seat to CHP's Akaydin, has suddenly started a campaign to remind Kusturica's old statements.

* Then, Culture Minister Ertugrul Gunay announced that he couldn't participate in the festival, because Kusturica would be there.

* Kusturica didn't care much about the debate until today when several nationalist groups mobilized after the provocations of the government officials. So thirty police officers started to escort Kusturica, which naturally enraged him.

* While announcing that he's leaving Turkey, Kusturica told that it wouldn't be possible to lecture young Turkish directors with thirty guards with him. He said that Turkey is still his friend, but Culture Minister Gunay is his "enemy" now.

* The most striking part of Kusturica's press conference was when he explained how he came to Turkey a few months ago, taking the stage in Bursa, playing his guitar in front of a passionate audience. "Women with head scarves were dancing with our tune, everything was great, concert was perfect," he said. Then he concluded: "It happened like that, because the mayor of Bursa, who kissed and hugged us and hosted us amazingly, was from the government party."

The scandal shows why AKP is such a dangerous government. Even one of its most moderate members, the Culture Minister who was formerly a CHP figure, can easily play the role of a provocateur when it serves their political interests.

Quo usque tandem, the Islamist mob?

Quo vadis?

Deutschland Über Alles

Germany has just shown why it is a great country.

No, I don't mean the superb performance of Germany's national team on the football pitch which lead them to a 3-0 win over Turkey in last night's Euro 2012 qualifier in Berlin.

I meant how most Germans act before, during and after the dramatic game that they hosted.

Germany is great, because it has got people like Joachim Löw and other football authorities who allowed this match to be played in Berlin, as a gesture to the massive Turkish community in the city. As a result, more than half of Berlin Olympic Stadium was crowded by Turks, making this crucial match almost an away game for Germany.

With such sympathy and such vision, Löw and others gave a sporstmanlike lecture to the narrow-minded, old-fashioned, nationalist politics which was represented by a Turk and a German in the crowd. In the end, Löw was still victorious against a Turkish team with six players who were born in Germany and one player who was born in Brazil. It should be the perfect result for Germany, because being good while winning is always the best.

There were also evil moments last night, like when a bunch of German fans booed the Turkish anthem and when most Turkish fans kept booing Mesut Özil, the Turkish-German star of the German national team, whenever he touched the ball. When Özil scored, it was a triumph of a human, but after it was seen that he didn't celebrate his goal, it was clear that one part of him is still a Turk.

The idiocy of those Turkish fans who booed Özil is somewhat understandable, as most of them live in Germany where they have been discriminated against for decades and where racists like Thilo Sarrazin can still be popular icons.

But who cares about the past after this night? The very same people, the Turks who booed Özil and the Germans who booed the Turkish anthem, spent the night together in Berlin pubs last night, celebrating and finding consolation.

Yes, who cares about the past? The future is belonged to people like Joachim Löw and Mesut Özil, not Angela Merkel or Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The future is about learning to live and enjoy the moment altogether, going beyond all kinds of complexes. In such a future, Germany and Turkey, as two European countries with cosmopolitan metropolises and rich national teams, will be both great. I am sure about it.

Freedom of the Press and the Free Market

Yesterday, I was one of the guests of Global Journalist, a half-hour weekly discussion of international news on KBIA, the public radio station of the University of Missouri, which hosts the first school of journalism in the world.

In the show, which is moderated by Prof Byron Scott, we talked about freedom of the press and the free market. By giving the Turkish example, I tried to explain that economic development -and even the diversification of media ownership- doesn't necessarily lead to a better environment for press freedom.

The show can be listened here and its transcript can be read here.

Maybe EU Can Be a Member to Turkey, One Day

The heading is about a possibility. Just a possibility. The EU must work hard to realize it.

What do I mean?

Let's remember:

In France, the right-wing Sarkozy government can comfortably start a xenophobic debate on national identity, then deport the Roma community by violating the EU acquis communitaire. In the end, the European Commission steps back after initially daring to criticize Sarkozy.

In Germany, even a Social Democrat former minister can voice racist views, stating that the Turkish-Muslim community is lowering the average IQ of the country. And polls reveal that most Germans support these racist views... When the President opposes these views and states that Islam is also a part of Germany now, a right-wing politician, Norbert Geis, can snugly suggest that freedom of religion doesn't mean the equality of all religions.

Likewise, in the Netherlands, racism in disguise of free speech is now completely tolerated as long as it is anti-Muslim, not anti-Semitic, as can be seen from the ongoing farce to form a coalition government with the help of Islamophobic far-rightists. All these countries with some other ones are about to ban burqa as a stupid, populist action against Islamist extremism.

A similar trend can be observed in several other EU countries, including Italy where the Northern League is a legitimate entity with an openly racist discourse that is adopted by the Berlusconi government and reflected in its asylum/deportation policies.

On the other hand, in Spain, the courts can ban several political parties of an ethnic minority, the Basques, by simply stating that they just don't condemn separatism. Political demonstrations to protest a court decision can also be banned easily.

In Greece, the government can destroy all of its Islamic heritage dating back to 450-years-long Ottoman rule, making Athens the only European capital without a mosque. It can force its thousands of Muslim citizens and immigrants to pray in a city square on Fridays and in religious holidays.

In Bulgaria and Romania, the government can keep ignoring EU's economic criteria and take no notice of rampant corruption. Not only they have been accepted as full members of the EU in spite of these violations, but also the EU doesn't do anything about them even now, although an accession monitoring system is still on as a ridiculous first for the Union. They are "still failing to meet EU standards" even after accession!..

I'm not going list all other EU members that systematically violate different EU rules, like it is with Britain and the rules to protect privacy or Poland and the rules on internal gas market or Hungary and the rules on state aid...

Or almost all member states which don't apply the decisions of the European Court of Justice that upheld the right of free movement of qualified Turkish citizens in the EU, calling for all EU states to comply with this decision, helplessly.

* * *

Imagine what would happen with the already-stagnated accession process, if Turkey violates one of these EU rules even slightly.

With the French style anti-Roma deportation or the German-Italian-Dutch style normalization of racism, the anti-Turkish front in the EU could immediately stop the accession by naming Turkey as a fascist state... Remember how the EU officials were criticizing the Turkish ban on head scarves in university campuses and how they are silent now for a burqa ban in member states.

The link between PKK, a terrorist organization according to the EU, and its political extensions have been documented clearly in the past (in a more clear way than the Spanish courts did with the links of ETA to Basque parties) and they have been banned in Turkey as such; but the EU had harshly criticized Ankara, while cooperating with Spain.

While Greece was silently destroying almost everything from its Islamic past in spite of the religious needs of its Muslim population, Turkey was protecting most of its Christian and Jewish heritage even though most of the local congregations were too small to keep up these buildings. Then what happened? Turkey is now being criticized for not immediately installing a giant cross on the dome of a renovated Armenian church in a remote island in far east!

And Turkey is still being scolded in EU's Progress Reports for not fully adopting the economic standards of the Union, even though its economy is much healthier than -not only Bulgaria and Romania, but also- most of the member states now.

* * *

Such double-standards by the EU are not news anymore. However, for the times they are a-changin', these double-standards are more dangerous now.

The EU, with its right-wing old guard in charge, can still not see that it desperately needs Turkey, much more than Turkey needs it.

If Turkey is alienated by the EU for some more time, the EU will miss the last train of membership, not Turkey.

The rise of Turkey is not the product of the AKP government by the way (AKP still practices the economic strategy which was drawn by Kemal Dervis, a Social Democrat politician, in 2001). By reviewing Turkey's demographic and economic trends, its prospective rise has been foreseen in early 1980s. In near future, if Turkey adopts a more import-oriented economic strategy, it will be able to support even a more aggressive foreign policy.

By then, the EU may even collapse alongside Euro, while Turkey keeps flourishing by remaining outside the Union. So as I've said before, Brussels and the peoples of the EU have only one option as a stimulus now:

Get rid of these racists and enlarge your EU with Turkey, before its too late!

Turkish Wiretapping Goes Cosmic

Turkey plans to launch its first intelligence satellite by 2012, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today.

As a Turk, I'm proud to learn that my country has now got the technology and human resources to build a complex product like a spy satellite.

At the same time, as a human, I'm concerned that the spy satellite would probably be controlled by the current government of AKP.

Now we can expect that the never-ending witch-hunt that they call the Ergenekon case can be internationalized. Thanks to the citizen journalism of Dani Rodrik, now we know that one of the core indictments of the case uses a fake CD as its primary evidence.

But imagine the Turkish police starts wiretapping the whole region, pushing the current illegality over national borders...

Silvio Berlusconi is really a potential Ergenekon suspect now!

No Drama

Rumor has it that I've been killed, so I couldn't post anything recently.

It's not true, of course.

I was busy with bureaucratic procedures to have my M.A thesis approved and with talks with a few publishing houses to have it published as a book.

Both missions are almost accomplished, so I guess I'll restart to post here regularly soon.