Thievestan

A few days before that I had learned that my registry as a voter had disappeared from the records. No one has an explanation why I officially do not reside in the apartment I have been residing in for 10 years. So I decided it must be another simple twist of fate. Any chance of a correction? Too late. I should have appealed before Jan. 30. I immediately gave up digging more in fear of having to make physical contact with a government official.

These days, the wisest thing a pedestrian coming across a government bigwig can do is to turn around his head, start whistling a cheerful song, wear a big smile and walk away as fast as possible. Recently a 13-year-old student, who, according to police account, shouted out a curse at Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s convoy, was arrested and now faces prosecution for "insulting the elders of the state." The boy claims the prime minister injured him physically, and a hospital report verifies bruises on his neck and shoulders.

Last week, eight young men who protested Mr. Erdoğan were brutally arrested by the police. But a group of unemployed women who were complaining of joblessness to Environment Minister Veysel Eroğlu were luckier. No arrests or injuries. The minister politely replied to them: "Don’t you have enough work at home?" He was right. Why should women seek jobs? That would not suit the worldview of the "elders of our state." Really, has anyone researched how many of the wives of our Cabinet ministers are working ladies, and how many are housewives?

In another town, a young man was unfortunate enough to address Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker with unfinished words: "Esteemed minister É I am going to ask a question É" The minister stopped the man with a nice Turkish argot before he was taken away by bodyguards.

But it is not only the politicians who are nervous about the slightest hint of opposition to the ruling elite. The bureaucrats are as intolerant as much. A theater wanted to amuse the people of Kesan, a small town in Thrace. They failed with that, but instead they reluctantly amused the whole country. The name of the satirical musical was "A fairy tale for adults: Thievestan."

The play was supposed to be performed at the Keşan Cultural Center, but in a last-minute decision, the governor, Abdülkadir Karataş, decided that it should not. According to one account, the governor, having noticed the satire about governmental corruption in the script, banned the play and told one of the actors: "I am not going to let you do propaganda." Sadly, Turkey’s rulers have become so autocratic that they and their bureaucrats can turn so prickly about even satirical plays featuring corruption.

Ironically, the ban on the play coincided with the news of state officials forcing a science journal to scrap an article celebrating the work of Charles Darwin. No, the ban on the 16-page Darwin section in Bilim ve Teknik, the journal of the state scientific research institute, or TÜBİTAK, was not the work of the ruling party. It was the work of "Islamist scientists" disguised as "scientists" at higher echelons of TÜBİTAK.

Naturally, the ban and the firing of one academic who wanted to have Darwin on the journal’s cover, has prompted accusations that the ruling Islamists were trying to impose religious ideas on academic institutions. According to the Guardian, "It has also led to renewed warnings from European officials that continued restrictions on freedom of speech could harm Turkey's drive for EU membership."

Can we now accuse Jacques Julliard, columnist for the French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur, for finding a resemblance between Mr. Erdoğan’s governance and the times of Louis Napoleon?