When France Doesn't Kick Out PKK, PKK Kicks Out France

If the French government keeps tolerating the activities of PKK, a terrorist organization according to Turkey, the EU and the United States, then the French people will soon face the violent problem that Turks have been trying to solve for a long time.

They may have finally recognized it after what happened in Paris yesterday.

Turkish citizens had gathered in Bastille Square to protest the recent terrorist attacks. Turks were chanting slogans like "Down with PKK" and "Turks and Kurds are brothers" when alleged PKK supporters attacked them with sticks and stones.

As fifteen people were being wounded and the French police were using tear gas, Turkish protestors were already traumatized by this terror attack in a European country. Unlike the armed group of PKK militants, there were several women and children among Turks.

Check out the video, produced by a proud PKK sympathizer:

Will Nicolas Sarkozy kick PKK militants out of the country, only when they start to burn the people and the business of France, just like they are doing it now in Turkey?

PKK's Suicide Mule

Remember the Washington Post article on PKK, sympathetically portraying a terrorist as a protector of a bear cub who was a victim of Turkish jets?

Well, it seems that it was really a PKK show, as same terrorists proved today that they don't care about animals, just like they don't care about human life.

In Hakkari province, a mule was slowly walking towards a police station today. Police shot the mule, as its huge cargo was highly suspicious. Then they put a detonation fuse on the carcass and boom! It was revealed that the mule was loaded with A4 and C4 type of explosives. It seems that it was a coordinated attack by PKK, which also hit Bitlis province with a suicide bomber today, killing five policemen and three civilians.

Here is the video, giving a hint about the huge amount of explosives on the back of the mule, PKK's poor victim:

In Defense of Turkish Coffee... Against Steve Jobs!

For me, the most interesting part of Steve Jobs' official biography is the part that he revealed where he discovered that the young people are globalized: In a Turkish bath!

Here is that part:

"An example of this magical thinking was (Steve Jobs') plan to build a luxurious yacht. Before his liver transplant, he and his family used to rent a boat for vacations, traveling to Mexico, the South Pacific, or the Mediterranean. On many of these cruises, Jobs got bored or began to hate the design of the boat, so they would cut the trip short and fly to Kona Village. But sometimes the cruise worked well.

'The best vacation I’ve ever been on was when we went down the coast of Italy, then to Athens—which is a pit, but the Parthenon is mind-blowing—and then to Ephesus in Turkey, where they have these ancient public lavatories in marble with a place in the middle for musicians to serenade.'

When they got to Istanbul, he hired a history professor to give his family a tour. At the end they went to a Turkish bath, where the professor’s lecture gave Jobs an insight about the globalization of youth:

'I had a real revelation. We were all in robes, and they made some Turkish coffee for us. The professor explained how the coffee was made very different from anywhere else, and I realized, “So fucking what?” Which kids even in Turkey give a shit about Turkish coffee? All day I had looked at young people in Istanbul. They were all drinking what every other kid in the world drinks, and they were wearing clothes that look like they were bought at the Gap, and they are all using cell phones. They were like kids everywhere else. It hit me that, for young people, this whole world is the same now. When we’re making products, there is no such thing as a Turkish phone, or a music player that young people in Turkey would want that’s different from one young people elsewhere would want. We’re just one world now'."

* * *

I can't disagree more.

When I disagree, I don't only mean the perplexed vision of Steve Jobs, who considers the catastrophic invasion of heterogeneous local cultures by the homogenous uniformity and standardization of a global deculturization machine.

I also mean the coffee, man.

Many young people "give a shit" about Turkish coffee. I was grown up so, demanding my daily dosage of two cups of Turkish coffee every single day, because it's for -especially, but not only- the Turkish palate, certified by a thousand-year-old history of our culture.

Just like there are millions of Italians who "give a shit" about espresso. I even had an Italian friend, Salvatore, carrying his espresso machine wherever he goes.

And you don't need to be a Turk to enjoy Turkish coffee or an Italian to be addicted to espresso, but not Nescafe. After all, aren't people out there who can't do without Cuban cigars or Kentucy Fried Chicken?

To conclude, I'll summarize my view about Steve Jobs:

Let's face it, Apple fanboys. Steve Jobs was not an inventor. He didn't invent anything. He was just a great businessman who was one of the best ever in creating demand by improving old products with innovative ways.

Jobs' damning verdict about Turkish coffee is predictable in this regard. He had recently become one of the leading figures of the super-national capital, so this is normal that he black-washes the local for the sake of the global. He was one of those fat cats who advocate for the free circulation of commodities, but not persons.

I wish that Jobs could be defending the young people in the White House, instead of lobbying for corporations against President Barack Obama or declaring thermonuclear war against Google, which pissed off Jobs with Android, an open system which may potentially make many young people more productive, comparing to the closed system of Apple which encourages even more consumerism that is the reason behind the 'shit' that we're in now. The shit that was mainly a by-product of the ways that we didn't give a shit...

May God forgive your sins, Mr. Jobs.

Rest in peace.

PKK? OK, But Where Is Our 20 Billion Dollars?

When the latest earthquake happened in Van province, twenty-two battalions (around 10.000 soldiers) of the Turkish army were out on the field for military operations against PKK militants.

Some of these battalions were inside northern Iraq to pursue PKK militants who killed 24 Turkish soldiers in Hakkari, south of Van city, on Oct. 19.

Just after the scale of the disaster in Van was clear, the Turkish army sent five battalions for relief operations, in and around Van.

However, PKK attacked in the Baskale district of Van last night. Four Turkish soldiers, who were participating in the relief operations were wounded by a PKK bomb.

The Van earthquake and the PKK activity in the region is being related in several stories in the Turkish media. It is shameful at this point IMHO, but it also has a factual accuracy, considering events like the one above.

After all, thousands of Kurds in the same region had filled the streets of Cizre, a town not very far from Van, on Sunday to mourn the death of a local "heroine", a PKK commander. "The P.K.K. is the community, and we are the community,” the crowd chanted, referring to a criminal gang which was designated as a terrorist organization internationally.

The linkage is still disgusting, as there are still bodies under the rubbles of the collapsed buildings, suffering or already deceased, whether they are Turks or Kurds. On the other hand, some reactions by the far-rightist Turks and hardcore PKK sympathizers especially in social media, makes it harder for the common sense to prevail.

For instance, "You were throwing stones to the police and shooting at soldiers, now you're asking for help," a Turkish TV presenter told and got a lot of negative reactions.

It is a fact that PKK has, not only attacking security forces in the region, but also systematically been burning or sabotaging heavy duty vehicles, like excavators which may have saved lives after the earthquake, suggesting that they are the symbols of the central government.

Even this doesn't change the fact that the remarks by the Turkish TV presenter were crude and unacceptable. Everything aside, how can be so sure that all those suffered from the earthquake supported the PKK. Even so, isn't it the responsibility for the state to care for its citizens even if they are criminals or terrorists?

Although the government response to the earthquake was better than the previous earthquakes, I agree that the PKK issue makes it harder for Ankara, as well as the local citizens, to cope with the disaster.

On the other hand, I still point the finger at -not the irresponsible and ignorant Turkish TV presenters or the PKK sympathizers who are as despisable but- the government for a totally different reason.

After the 1999 earthquake in Istanbul, the former government had adopted a temporary tax for an earthquake relief fund. The following AKP government turned it into a permanent tax. Now all Turkish citizens are still paying this additional tax under almost all categories, from property to cellphone bills.

The size of the earthquake relief fund has recently exceed 20 billion dollars, although we, ordinary citizens, don't see the money around.

Even if you have not taken online accounting classes, that is a lot of money to be accounted for.

So I'm asking the government now:

Where is this money? If it is being used to help Van now, why are you collecting donations for the aid from the private sector and citizens? If you won't use it now, when will you use it? Or did you already use it for paying the salaries of the public servants and/or covert vote-buying in the past?

The Spectator's Malevolent Neutrality

When I wrote about the PKK's timing of the latest terror attacks, I said that many Turks believe in the "foreign hand" thesis, but I didn't reveal my own opinion.

I think that conspiracy theories are wrong, although it may be expected from the Syrian regime to use the PKK proactively as a leverage against Turkey nowadays. On the other hand, the latest attacks may not directly be the product of a third country, but PKK remains as the illegitimate son of various foreign states. The international media, like it has been regularly happening in the past, is just the extension of this indirect relationship.

The latest example has been given by Reuters. Just a few of hours after PKK militants, who probably crossed the Iraqi border hours before, attacked the Turkish army and police bases in southeast Turkey, killing 24 soldiers, Reuters published a sympathetic "analysis," arguing that "after 30 years of strife, Kurdish lives remain blighted." Was it really the time to put this article online? Could Reuters make a similar move by publishing an article, sympathetic to Taliban, right after 24 British soldiers were killed by Taliban militants ---in Britain?

What Reuters calls "strife" is simply the PKK terrorism which killed 30.000 people in 30 years. And when Reuters states that "lives remain blighted", it refrains to point out that conditions are same, or even worse, for many Turks, too.

Germany insists on "integration" and France on "national identity" at home and there are tens of political prisoners from Basque of Spain, while Turkey, as another nation-state, is being condemned for applying a single-language school curriculum (the speaking of Kurdish, as well as teaching it in private courses are free in Turkey and there are Kurdish language university programs). What would all the Kurdish children do when they were graduated from the primary school if they still couldn't speak Turkish? Isn't it a long-term recipe for secession?

It is ironic that the author of the Reuters article is Ibon Villelabeitia, presumably a Basque journalist. I'm not sure if he is fantasizing a parallelism between PKK and ETA, imagining of a victory for the former in Turkey... a victory that couldn't be achieved by the latter in Spain.

Such an anti-Turkish propaganda may really bear fruits in the long term, as it is still all quite on the Western front. The United States remains as the only sincere ally of Turkey against PKK terrorism, while Ankara can only hear words from the European Union. Their insincere rhetoric against PKK is still not supported by action. Several EU countries tend to support or at least ignore PKK's financial network in the EU, as long as the terrorists don't touch their own interests.

Spain has finished off ETA, thanks to the decisive support of France. As long as the EU lets PKK finance its operations there and the Kurdish officials in northern Iraq allows them to use Qandil mountains as a heaven and a springboard for its militants, Turkey cannot finish off PKK. Especially as the hypocrisy of the international media continue...

So it is not the "foreign hand..."

In Slavoj Zizek's terms, it is "the spectator's malevolent neutrality."

PKK's Timing and the 'Foreign Hand'

PKK terrorists killed 24 Turkish soldiers and injured 18 in simultaneous attacks in southeast Turkey last night.

Turkish public is outraged and the reactions are getting harsher both against the government and the army. This is one of the bloodiest nights that I've ever witnessed in Turkey's decades-long war on separatist terrorism.

Ankara is on high alert. The first reaction of President Abdullah Gül is interesting. He began his remarks by saying that "the whole world must know that we will prevail in the war on terrorism."

This is an obvious reference to the "foreign hand" thesis. After Turkey's relations soured with Syria and Israel, there were several pieces in the media, suggesting that both of these countries may use PKK terrorism as a leverage. Of course, Iran, with its territories just a few hundreds kilometers away from where the PKK attacked last night, is another usual suspect, according to many Turks.

The timing of PKK's latest attack is especially significant, as it came on the same day that the Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu met the Syrian opposition officially for the first time and the Hamas prisoners who were exiled after the swap deal with Israel arrived in Ankara. Moreover, the Turkish parliament was about to begin debating the new constitution today.

Towards the End of the Sarkozienne Hypocrisy

The French Socialist leader François Hollande's first act as presidential candidate was to attend today's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the police massacre of Algerians demonstrating in Paris.

It is predicted that Hollande will easily unseat President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012 elections.

* * *

While visiting Georgia and Armenia a couple of weeks ago, Nicolas Sarkozy called on Turkey to recognize the Ottoman tragedy of 1915 as a genocide.

Consequently, several Algerians lashed out at Sarkozy, saying that he should "look in the mirror" and apologize for the Algerian genocide first.

* * *

Like Sarkozy, Hollande refers to the 1915 events as a genocide, too. He even puts its recognition as a precondition for Turkey's EU membership.

While it is even a harsher stance comparing to Sarkozy to snatch the French-Armenian votes, why don't Turks perceive Hollande as a hypocrite, while they keep hating Sarkozy?

Because of the fact that Hollande kept himself away from double-standards like the issue with the Algerian genocide?

Yes, but not only because of that, I believe...

* * *

To explain it, let's look at Sarkozy's stance on Turkey's EU candidacy. Sarkozy's main argument is the "fact" that Turkey is "geographically in Asia" and its population is "100 million".

Such rhetorical manipulation is still being made, as it is reported today that Henry Renault, the French Ambassador in Yerevan, said that the main reason of France's opposition to Turkey's EU membership is its geographical position.

Repeating this, especially in Yerevan, is so funny. Because the same Sarkozy, who visited Yerevan and criticized Turkey there because of the genocide issue, was heralding that Georgia and Armenia will one day become EU members.

So Armenia and Georgia is geographically in Europe, just like Cyprus, while Turkey is not?

(Some people who want to learn more about political issues like this look into online masters degree programs.)

* * *

After all, is Sarkozy a dumbass?

Or a despicable liar?

Non! But these question brings us to the conclusion:

Sarkozy's main argument against Turkey is actually not geographical.

The subtext is always Islamophobic, as he saws Christian-majority countries of Georgia, Armenia and Cyprus as European, although they are geographically in Asia, while he excludes the Muslim-majority Turkey with its biggest city largely in Europe.

This is why Turks don't hate Hollande, even when he angers them by manipulating the history for politicial means.

This is why it would be great for Turks to say goodbye to Sarkozy next year, as the Islamophobic hypocrisy in the EU will diminish significantly with his fall.

Turkish Journalist? Don't Report and the Problem is Solved

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan's speech in Ankara today is full of interestingness.

Some may call some of his sayings as aphorisms, some others may call them gaffes.

Firstly, he explained the recent hikes in prices of luxury goods, including cigarettes and toilet paper (!), with the following words:

"If cigarettes are too expensive, don't smoke and the problem is solved. Alcohol? Drink less and the problem is solved. And instead of driving a Porsche, drive a Fiat or Volkswagen."

Then, he lashed out at the Kurdish deputies of BDP, who had recently tried to steal the piousness show from AKP by introducing a draft law to allow women with headscarves in the parliament.

"Are they really sincere? Can anyone who is a Zoroastrian like them be sincere on this subject?" Erdoğan asked, referring to the BDP deputies.

* * *

European Union’s 2011 progress report has recently alarmed that violations of press freedom in Turkey were serious, but I have a dream.

A fantasy, indeed.

I’d like to have a Borat-style interview with Erdoğan, arriving in the Prime Minister’s office with my Porsche and asking him about the arrested journalists, before revealing that I am a Zoroastrian.

As I would start to sip my champagne and smoke a cigar, I’m sure as hell that Erdoğan would answer my question quite comfortably:

“Are you still trying to be a journalist in Turkey? Well, don’t report anything and the problem is solved.”

"Chenquieh," I would reply.

Two Techno-Brains from Turkey: The Armenian Jobs and The Greek Lazaridis

The world keeps talking about two technology companies:

1) Apple, because of the death of its co-founder, as well as the record-breaking pre-orders for its newest smartphone.

2) RIM, because of the failure of its worldwide service for Blackberry smartphones, as well as it's already declined prestige.

Two individuals who are right in the middle of the debate, Apple's Steve Jobs and RIM's Mike Lazaridis, are both related to Turkey, it is recently revealed.

1) Steve Jobs tells in his autobiography that his father was an Ottoman-Armenian from Malatya, who immigrated to the United States after the tragedies of 1915.

2) Mike Lazaridis was about to visit Turkey recently, but he refrained as he was considered a draft dodger here. After spending his childhood in Istanbul, his Turkish-Greek family had immigrated to Canada in 1967. A six-month-long military service is obligatory for university graduates in Turkey.

These two figures show that we produce a lot of great people in Turkey, but we struggle to keep them here.

And what about the people that we don't even know?

How much potential are we wasting away?

Guardians and Dissidents

The system always nurtures its guardians, who are mostly ignorant, comparing to its dissidents.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a Hürriyet report about Nedim Şener, a Press Freedom Hero who was arrested last March with his investigative books as the only evidence at the hands of the prosecution.

According to the latest report, the prosecution tapped Şener's phone and included all the transcripts, whether relevant to the case or not, in the indictment. One of the transcripts is especially funny: Şener was sardonically praising his boss, Uğur Dündar, calling him the "Zeus" of the Turkish media.

The police officer who was secretly listening to this conversation was not familiar with the Greek mythology. He interpreted the word "Zeus" as "Deyyus" and put it into the transcript as such. Deyyus means "pander" in Turkish. Following his arrest, another police officer would ask Şener why he called Dündar a pander to his face.

From left to right: Uğur Dündar, Nedim Şener and Zeus

Several pundits insist that the Gulenist movement, a moderate Islamist brotherhood, is controlling the Turkish police now, but this is not about ideologies or partisanship.

As I said, the system nurtures ignorant guardians, whether it is a capitalist, communist or a third way system.

The tragic/comic story of Nedim Şener may be a blunder by the current establishment, but it reminded me of the past, when the Turkish police was controlled by the military administration of the Eighties, which may many can see as the anti-thesis of the AKP government now (although it's wrong, IMHO).

A well-known story tells that the police was raiding houses in 1980 to suppress leftist dissidents. In the apartment of a group of university students, there was a portrait of Karl Marx on the wall. The students were trembling, knowing that this was the end of the road. However, the police officer looked at the portrait and told the leftist students: "You should be ashamed of your cherub grandfather with his white beard of a wise man."

Karl Marx and his beard

The guardians never know about Zeus or Karl Marx.

The dissidents are not like that.

A couple of days ago, the International Golden Orange Film Festival opened in the southern city of Antalya with the presentation of awards.

Turkish actor Rutkay Aziz, who received the social responsibility in art award, gave a memorable speech, slamming the government without naming the names, but still.

He quoted Goethe at one point:

"The most dangerous situation of the world is when organized ignorance is in action."

As far as I know, Goethe had worded it in another way ("There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action"), but I believe that the Aziz version, with the emphasis on "organized," is even more suitable to define our time.

Because not only Turkey, but the whole world needs a system, where its guardians would be enlightened enough to know at least the names of Zeus and Karl Marx.

The dissidents can help out.

Rutkay Aziz with his award in Antalya

Curb Nationalism, So the Nation Comes Through

Remember U.S. President Barack Obama's oath stumble? Turks are now debating a similar theme, but with an ethnic/ideological twist.

The Turkish Parliament opened today for the new legislative season with all parties on board.

Lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, took their oaths and formally ended a parliamentary boycott over colleagues who remain in jail.

The oath of Leyla Zana, one of BDP's thirty deputies in the parliament, was controversial, again. After all, she had caused outrage when she tried to take the oath in Kurdish in 1991.

As can be seen from the following video, Zana didn't take the oath in Kurdish this time, but she stumbled when she was reading the last part of the oath. It is not clear if she said that she took the oath in the face of the great "Turkish nation" or the great "nation of Turkey."

Leyla Zana taking oath

Several media outlets argued that Zana refrained from using the term "Turkish nation," opting to reword the text cynically to emphasize the presence of Turkey's Kurds as well.

The secretary of the Turkish parliament, however, concluded that Zana's oath was according to the rules set by the Constitution, as she actually uttered the words "Turkish nation," although stammeringly.

I can't really understand any parties of this debate...

...neither the Turkish nationalists who seem like they enjoy to force people to do something against their will and feelings...

...nor most of the BDP deputies, who claim to represent a leftist ideology (even the PKK was founded as a Marxist-Leninist party before being designated as an terrorist organization by several countries), but ended up as Kurdish nationalists as despicable as the Turkish ones.

And the solution?

This parliament will write the new constitution. It can solve both problems by a magical touch..

...by removing the unnecessary emphasis on Turkishness (which is a product of the 1980 coup d'etat, not Atatürk)...

...while still abiding by the principle that the Republic of Turkey is a nation-state, as a social, democratic and lawful entity.

If Germany -even the left- is insisting on integration and France doesn't refute their national identity, why should Turks transform their state into a de facto confederation with Kurds?

Moreover, this is not even an ethical question anymore:

After all, Kurds have their own nation-statelet in northern Iraq and it is quite rich and resourceful, aren't they?