Emin Colasan: Mr. Minister in Algeria

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is on a trip to Algeria! In talks at the State Guesthouse, there is a Turkish flag set up behind him. At the tip of the flagpole, some laundry rope binds the flag to the pole. The lower part of the flag, which is not photographed, is wrinkled. There are no Turkish counterparts on hand to take care of the situation. This is the result of being a trod upon, not-taken-seriously-enough country. And look at the world map behind FM Gul-the part that shows Turkey is completely incorrect, they didn't even put in the Black Sea! Shall we just laugh and move on? "Enlightened" People who perceive themselves as "enlightened" publish public notices every now and then in Turkey. These are actually the "intellectual" team members! Their latest issue is with the recent "nationalist" events. For some reason it never occured to these "enlighteneds" to react to PKK posters and Abdullah Ocalan slogans, or to the stomping of the Turkish flag (in Mersin over Nehvruz). But when people started to react on their own to these things, the "enlighteneds" started to say "oh, but be calm!" The signatures at the bottom of the group notice are mostly voices of support for the European Parliament and the AKP. Some of them are leaders and members of organizations friendly to the PKK. Some of them have even turned from leftists back into "enlighteneds."  Abdullah Gul repeated some of the same assertions of this group yesterday in a Islamic newspaper: "We as the government are in complete control of the situation. I wouldn't call the events of the last days a wave of nationalism. I would call it a chauvinist reflex..." Both the "enlightened" group's notice calling for common sense from the people and Gul's words of wisdom should have been against PKK terror, Apo slogans, attempts to divide the country, the stomping of the Turkish flag, and the provocative visits to Diyarbakir by members of the European Parliament. Apparently, protecting the foundations of the Turkish Republic is considered dangerous, but neither anti-secularism nor Kurdish nationalism are perceived as such. Neither the "enlightened" group nor Abdullah Gul should have waited for the events in Trabzon to air their views with us! Â