Yusuf Kanlı

Turkey is going through difficult times though the prime minister still believes that he has tied his donkey at such a strong pile that the global crisis past the country tangentially. The prime minister is admitting publicly that his government has failed in generating new jobs and pulling down the unemployment rate of the country.

Irrespective how strong the pile was, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s donkey is running wild in the wilderness; global crisis is sinking in Turkey more and more; companies are closing down, suspending production or scaling down their operations and thus sending every month several hundred thousand workers into unemployment. Is there prospect of finding new jobs? Unfortunately not.

Finally the government will start legislating this week a law to encourage employers to keep their workers. The government intends to extend financial assistance for a period of three to six months to troubled companies who report they have difficulty in paying wages. Adjustments in the value added tax and the special consumption tax rates to revive production and consumption in some key industries, including automotives sector, is in the cards as well. Naturally, the government is battling to find a way to finance these incentives without upsetting the balance of budget.

Right, but our prime minister is not after entering into a new deal and getting some fresh financial assistance from the IMF, either. The prime minister is stressing that any deal with the IMF should be serving the interests of Turkey and that he would not accept any conditions that he considered would amount to the IMF "squeezing the throat" of Turkey. But, why is Turkey intending to make a deal with the IMF? Is it because this country is a society of masochists? Or is it because the IMF could extend the country some easy and cheap credits if we agree to a set of conditions that the IMF believed would help the Turkish economy recover? Could it be an excuse to say this crisis is not ours, it is an imported global crisis? Can such an excuse provide bread to the home of the unemployed worker?

Life or power?The finance minister of the country, on the other hand, is ill. He might be suffering from cold, or he might have some serious heart problems and must undergo an operation. He stayed hospitalized for one full week, then discharged in the middle of the night Monday after rumors started to spread in Ankara that Erdoğan started picking names for a Cabinet reshuffle. Is the ministerial seat more important than health? Can’t the finance minister of the country suffer from some serious health condition, undergo an operation and remain hospitalized for some time? Or, is it compulsory for Kemal Unakıtan to remain finance minister even at the expense of risking his own life? Common sense finally prevailed and Unakıtan opted to undergo an operation in the United States. He flew the United States yesterday.

According to one claim the popularity of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan skyrocketed after the Davos walkout and for the first time the rating of the premier and his Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has exceeded 50 percent. A prominent polling company director said the support for the ruling party was at 35 to 38 percent margin for a long period since the end of the closure case last summer. The corruption claims against some prominent AKP figures and the extraordinary performance of main-opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, deputy (today’s mayoral candidate for Istanbul) Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in unveiling alleged corruption by leading AKP members further dipped the popularity of the AKP. However, with the Davos performance of the premier, support for AKP apparently exceeded 50 percent. Naturally, in a country where the communal memory is not much different than fish memory and hardly any issue can manage to attract public attention for more than two weeks, if somehow the AKP cannot rehash the "Davos walkout spirit" with some equally explosive attractions, the emotional upsurge in the support for the ruling party will die out by the time the election box is placed in front of the electorate some eight weeks later.

Istanbul syndrome

There are anyhow signs that the post-Davos surge in its popularity might not suffice and at least at some of its strongholds the AKP may suffer humiliating defeat. For example, though most public opinion polls place AKP’s incumbent Kadir Topbaş ahead of CHP’s Kılıçdaroğlu by at least 8 percentage points, at least one poll reportedly showed that Ñ as a result of CHP candidate’s clean politics platform starting to appeal voters on the one hand and the Islamist Felicity Party, or SP, mayoral candidate Mehmet Bekaroğlu dividing the Islamist-conservative vote on the other hand Ñ the CHP candidate may narrow the difference and indeed could finish the race first. Indeed, according to CHP sources, a public opinion poll conducted by the AKP in Istanbul predicted Kiliçdaroğlu will grasp the mayoral seat with 1.5 points difference. That is why, according to CHP analysts, the prime minister has concentrated so much on the Istanbul election as if he himself is contesting for the mayoral seat in the largest Turkish city.

Naturally, Istanbul has a symbolic significance. Social democrats lost the Istanbul mayoral seat to Islamist-conservatives back in 1994 with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan becoming the mayor. Since then, the largest city of the country has been run by Islamist-conservative mayors. If AKP loses the Istanbul election that could mark the start of the end of the AKP rule of the country as well. At least a social democratic victory in Istanbul will have a very strong psychological impact on national politics.

Diyarbakır and Çankaya

For the AKP, on the other hand, winning the Çankaya municipality in Ankara and the mayoral seat in Diyarbakır appears to be as important as winning the Istanbul mayoral seat. Çankaya, besides being the seat of presidency and government, has been the perennial stronghold of secularist social democrats. AKP worked hard to change the demography of the Çankaya by annulling some small municipalities and annexing them to the Çankaya region, however, that move was cancelled by the Council of State. The AKP now has Bülent Akarcalı, a center-right politician who served as health minister in the Turgut Özal government, as its candidate for Çankaya mayor while CHP has picked a city planning engineer Bülent Tanık. Naturally, both the AKP and CHP claim the other has no chance in the upcoming March 29 mayoral polls. While an AKP win at Çankaya will be a psychological booster for the "legitimacy seeking" ruling party, a Çankaya loss could trigger a landslide in the CHP. Perhaps the social democrats wishing to see change in the CHP utilize this probability by not voting for CHP. The Diyarbakır vote, on the other hand, has become psychologically detrimental for the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP. The DTP is trying to convert the vote in Diyarbakır, as well as 11 other southeastern cities where it participates elections, into a referendum on Kurdish identity of those settlements. If it loses to AKP in Diyarbakır and in some other cities of the region, it will have to reconsider whether to continue its ethnic nationalist policies or try to become a party engaged in national politics. A DTP win, on the other hand, could trigger increased unrest and a troubled future for the Southeast.

The Higher Election Board woke up! The election bazaar or the bazaar elections is illegal the board said. Distribution of sacks of coal, packs of sugar, cereals, gallons of cooking oil, food coupons as well as household appliances in a manner that could influence the vote is a crime the board said and warned that it will report to the prosecutor’s office if such election bribery continued. Since the middle of last summer municipalities headed by mayors from the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Prime Ministry and the Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundation, or the so called Fak-Fuk Fon, have been distributing tons of free and low calorie coal. The principal address of the coal distribution was the suburbs of the cities, but many people were shocked when while they were roasting under the August sun they saw piles of coal sacks dropped in front of their luxurious sea-side summer villas. That was indeed how the massive "coal-ization" campaign of the AKP hit the headlines last summer.

The coal distribution continued despite criticisms of the opposition parties as well as the media. The AKP government not only refused to stop the massive coal distribution campaign, but it as well ordered the governors "to deliver coal sacks themselves to the door of the citizens," because the era of state serving the nation has started. Though after this order of the prime minister we could not see governors shoveling coal, but we observed governors supervising the coal distribution described by the government as a requirement of social state dictate of the Constitution.

The opposition parties and critics in the media stressed right after the start of the coal distribution campaign that in the name of fulfilling "social state" responsibilities ordered by the Constitution, the AKP government not only has been violating the election laws with such election bribery but also has been nourishing a culture of begging in the country. Critics were stressing as well that while assisting needy citizens could be considered as a requirement of the social state, for the fulfillment of social state order of the Constitution administrations are required to administer the country economically and politically well, generate jobs and enable the citizens of the country lead a decent living they finance with their earnings rather than trying to make the end of the day with donations from the municipalities, the Prime Ministry or the Social Assistance and Solidarity Fund, or the Fak-Fuk fund.

As if to demonstrate the opposition and the critics in the media that the AKP cannot be deterred with such criticisms, the government added packages containing sacks of sugar, cereals as well as gallons of oil to their "social state" or "convert the nation into a beggar society" program.

Election board did not do its duty for months

While Higher Election Board remained a spectator to this massive election bribery program of the ruling AKP, Prime Minister Erdoğan decided to add some new more items to the state-funded alms distributed by the AKP municipalities, the Prime Ministry and the Fak-Fuk fund. First, he decided that distributing coal was not enough. People might not have stoves to burn that coal and heat up their houses. Thus, he appeared in front of cameras one day, defended the coal and foodstuff package distribution campaign saying the Turkish state was a social state, would take care of its needy people and if in these winter days there was need to distribute stoves to the needy to burn and heat themselves up with the donated coal, the government would do that as well.

Was that enough? No! The prime minister had some other bright ideas to enhance the state-sponsored alms. Starting from a Tunceli town in the Southeast, from where the AKP could not send anyone to Parliament, the government started distributing household appliances, mattresses, couches and you name what else.

Now the Higher Election Board has finally woke up and declared that buying votes of people with such "gifts" was a crime under the laws and that not only it will report to the prosecutor’s office the crime committed with the distribution of alms but it will have an eye on such activities from now on. Though it came so late, so nice to see the board woke up and said "stop" this vote buying campaign financed from our tax money.

Disinformation is often more widespread in Cyprus reporting than the actual news. This might be a product of the consolidated positions of the two sides on the island and their attempt to use tools of public diplomacy, headed by the media, to win either public support for the policies they pursue at the Cyprus talks process or to land the other side in some serious difficulties. Sometimes the two sides on the island as well test the pulse of the other side through some false reports in the media. This week, there was an excellent example to this in the Greek Cypriot media.

There were two separate reports in the Greek Cypriot "Politis" newspaper over the last week (the last one on Thursday) regarding the number of Turkish troops on Cyprus. In those two stories, the paper claimed that according to a United Nations Force in Cyprus, or UNFICYP, report in the last one year the number of Turkish troops in northern third of the eastern Mediterranean island was taken down to around 25,000 from the previous 35,000 to 40,000.

How accurate are the reports of Politis, a liberal, rather independent but not all the time reliable newspaper? Politis was commenting that since the figures about the Greek Cypriot National Force and the Greek military presence in southern Cyprus (both the contingent deployed under the 1960 accords, as well as those through bilateral accords between the Greek Cypriot administration and Athens), the figures about the Turkish military presence might be accurate as well.

If true, it would be a major step
Obviously if Turkey had taken a political decision and withdrew half or some of its troops from the island that would have been an unprecedented "goodwill" move or "concession" depending from what perspective one approaches the issue. Did Turkey took such a decision?

Our contacts Friday with both northern Turkish Cypriot and southern Greek Cypriot political sources showed that there was indeed a "discussion" over an alleged report of UNFICYP on the forces on both sides of the island. This report, according to claims, was released as a "backgrounder" at a meeting of the UNFICYP commander with representatives of the Turkish and Greek Cypriot political parties. However, to my surprise, reliable journalist friends on both sides of the island appeared rather skeptical on the issue and indeed most of them just disregarded it and did not report on it.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry was as well unaware of such a UNFICYP report. Spokesman Burak Özügergin, who was reached at the Munich airport, said he did not hear anything about such a report, most likely it was "yet another fabrication" of the Greek Cypriot media, but "the number of troops on Cyprus fluctuates according to the operational needs decided by the Turkish military. If there was a decrease, it could be a result of force refreshment program or operational needs." Özügergin, however, was very clear in underlining that even if for operational reasons or because of a force refreshment program the Turkish military decided to decrease the Turkish military presence on the island, there was definitely no such political decision and therefore the decrease was a temporary one.

Denial from UNFICYP
At the headquarters of the UNFICYP on the island, on the other hand, a spokesman was busy issuing denials. "There is no such report. Our briefing to representatives of political parties from both sides was an oral one. None of the senior military officers who participated the background briefing mentioned about strength of forces on either side. It was all fabrication." Yet, he conceded that one of the officers might made some unofficial and indeed private comments in private to some politicians during the coffee break.

Moments later Özügergin called back and "confirmed" that there was indeed no such report by UNFICYPand no programmed decrease in the number of Turkish troops on the island.

After a full day of investigation and several dozens of phone calls in Turkey, to Germany, as well as to northern and southern Cyprus, the end product was nothing further than discovery of a "creative" and "imaginative" but baseless reporting by Politis on an issue of extreme importance in Cyprus peacemaking.

It was neither the first of its kind, unfortunately, nor will be the last.

Municipalities, the Prime Ministry and the Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundation, or the so called Fak-Fuk Fon, have been busy for months to distribute the needy people living in suburbs of the cities, including the summer resort areas, thousands of tons of coal, packs of sugar, cereals, gallons of cooking oil, food coupons amounting to several million Turkish lirasÉ For months, the opposition parties and critics in the media have been stressing that in the name of fulfilling "social state" responsibilities ordered by the Constitution, the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government has been nourishing a culture of begging in the country. Whereas, while a social state does distribute social assistance to the needy, for the fulfillment of social state order of the Constitution administrations are required to administer the country economically and politically well, generate jobs and enable the citizens of the country lead a decent living they finance with their earnings rather than trying to make the end of the day with donations from the municipalities, the Prime Ministry or the Fak-Fuk Fon.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his AKP, however, intensified the "convert the nation into a beggar society" program as the municipal elections came closer; brushed aside the criticism of the opposition and the media as "politically motivated" and "reflect their failure to understand that it is one of the orders of our religion to take care of the needy and to distribute alms."

Initially, it was claimed that the "state-sponsored alms" Ñ or to put it better, a nationwide coal, foodstuffs and food coupons distribution funded by our tax money to buy some votes in the upcoming elections Ñ would be distributed twice a year, before the two religious holidays. Later, it became clear that although the religious holiday period was over distribution of the state-sponsored alms continued in full speed with trucks carrying coal and foodstuff packages playing hide and seek in the streets of the cities with the newsmen. The teams distributing alms were apparently told to avoid journalists and if required to undertake their holy task in the middle of the night.

When criticisms mounted, in line with his established "head on collision" style of leadership, Prime Minister Erdoğan appeared in front of cameras, defended the coal and foodstuff package distribution campaign saying the Turkish state was a social state, would take care of its needy people and if in these winter days there was need to distribute stoves to the needy to burn and heat themselves up with the donated coal, the government would do that as well.

Coal is not enough, let’s distribute stoves as well
The message of the premier was clear despite the laws of the country prohibiting election bribery: We have the majority in Parliament, we are the government, and we set the rules! If the opposition complains that we are buying votes by distributing coal, we may as well distribute stoves! It was like a bad joke. The self-catering democrat prime minister of the country was brushing aside all the "you are nourishing a beggar society. No one is opposed to distribution of social assistance to the needy, but social assistance cannot and should not turn into a massive vote buying program."

But, apparently, apart from coal, foodstuff packages and stoves, the government will increase the stakes in its bid to woo the electorate as the election date comes closer. Interesting enough, the new and extended alms distribution campaign of the government started from the Nazimiye town in the southeastern Tunceli province, the hometown of main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, Istanbul mayoral candidate, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. First teams of the local administration established the needs of the local population, then filed the order with the Fak-Fuk Fon, then came trucks loaded with (don’t be surprised, this is Turkey and it is election time) computers, refrigerators, ovens and such household appliances. To be more precise, within the "campaign" 120 ovens, 216 washing machines, 100 desktop computers, 108 dishwasher machines, coaches, chairs and you name what else. Six trailer trucks of household appliances. Naturally, opposition parties started shouting "unprecedented election bribery" while the Tunceli governor appeared in front of cameras and said he was proud of providing such a service to his townsfolk. And, Turkey is going to have fair elections.

There are some interesting developments that tempt many people believe in plot theories. How accurate they are or to what extent they support scores of plot theories developed with different and even totally opposing designs? First of all, it has become clear for everyone interested in indeed what has happened at the Davos panel on Gaza that organization of the panel was demanded by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a precondition for his participation at this year’s Economic Forum meeting. Apparently Erdoğan himself or the office of Erdoğan told the organizers of the Davos event that it would be great if besides Erdoğan the Gaza panel was attended by Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Secondly, before he traveled to Switzerland, Erdoğan told his deputies at a meeting in Parliament and the Turkish media at a press conference that he would be traveling to Davos to raise the immense human sufferings of the Palestinian people. He was even quoted as saying that one strong reason behind his Davos participation was to tell to the face of the Israeli leader that what his country was doing in the Gaza Strip amounted to crime against humanity.

Indeed, it was seen during the panel that both Prime Minister Erdoğan and Israel’s President Peres were quite prepared for a confrontation. Erdoğan had even collected a set of quotes from critical Jewish personalities, all condemning the Israeli operation. Furthermore, writing in the prestigious Jerusalem Post, Herb Keinon provided very important background information which if true can be considered as evidence that the Davos clash and the walkout might be nothing further than a theatrical event. According to Keinon some senior Israeli officials told him after the meeting between Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert and Erdoğan Ñ that took place on Dec. 23, just few days before the start of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip Ñ that Erdoğan told Olmert that he needed "a high-profile diplomatic success" to consolidate the legitimacy of his government against increasing secular opposition in Turkey. Keinon is a well-placed journalist and the article we are referring to was not denied by the Israeli prime minister.

Restrain Israel!

Was it normal for the president of Israel to call and talk in an apologizing tone with someone less than an hour later that person implied him a "murderer" and stormed out a joint panel? Furthermore, again from our readings in between the lines in the Israeli English-language online newspapers and Web-portals, we reach to the conclusion that Olmert has issued an order to his Cabinet members and asked them not to talk in a manner that could harm relations with Turkey. Even the statement of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni calling Turkey to respect the Israeli state was carefully worded not to further upset ties with Ankara. Could be considered a "routine" for Israel to try to "constraint" its reaction to a statement declaring the president of Israel as someone "who knows well how to kill people"? Something weird is happening. Israel accepted Erdoğan’s humiliation so easily. Even U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Ñ one of the on the spot witnesses of the churlish attitudes of Turkey’s angry man at Davos Ñ has called on Erdoğan to tell him "We need your leadership for peace in the Middle East." Arabs have almost declared Erdoğan a caliph and we are reading all kinds of absurdities in the Arab media going as far as to a call to rehash the Ottoman Empire and make Erdoğan its sultan and caliph of Muslims across the world.

Were all these discussed between Olmert and Erdoğan?There are even further details. Many people now started believing that there was no sudden burst of Erdoğan at Davos and most likely everything was prepared well in advance with the aim and intention of giving some strong signals to the world, as well as to the Turkish public ahead of the March local polls. For example, could anyone provide a reasonable explanation why Erdoğan rejected at the last minute a planned meeting with Peres hours before the panel? Did Erdoğan canceled the meeting with Peres because after such a meeting he would not be able to have a public confrontation with the Israeli leader?

What was the role of Erdoğan’s former right-hand-man Cüneyt Zapsu in all this "crisis scenario?" Was Olmert and Zapsu the scenarists, Erdoğan the chief actor and the rest, including Peres, played the secondary roles?

Was Davos really a theatric bout? But why?

The tall, bold, angry man was yelling Tuesday once again. He was speaking to the deputies of his Justice and Development Party, or AKP. The deputies were following him with wide-opened eyes, glaring with admiration for their leader. And, he was talking in the tone and excitement reminiscent of a shorter man with almond mustache in the Germany of the 1940s. "I am not a diplomat, I am a politician," he reiterated angrily, stressing he could not put up with an insult and not respond. "My diplomat," he said, "will rip off what is his right from the stomach of a lionÉ Rather than we consider what others would say to us and regulate our actions accordingly, others must think of what Turkey would say before taking an action. We have to all accept the greatness of Turkey and see that it is not fit for this country and nation to follow a shy or defeatist politics. Now, we have to stand tall!"

He was thankful of the "national unity" established in support of his "Davos walk out" and even appreciated the opposition’s support to his Davos behavior, but could not understand how it happened that despite a witch-hunt in the country against his critics, some writers were still opposing the way he behaved. The moderator putting his arm on his shoulder was an unacceptable and degrading attitude according to the tall, bold and angry man. "I might not have acted like a diplomat, but I could have behaved differently if I wanted to behave undiplomatically but I did not do that," he said. He was of course trying to say that he could have placed a punch on the face of the moderator but he was so considerate of the repercussions that he avoided it.

But, he was firm in stressing that no one in this country could allow anyone degrade Turkey or belittle the Turkish prime minister and the few critics in the media should accept that as well. He was having difficulty in understanding why those few opponents were criticizing the way he behaved and charging that particularly his walkout from the panel like an upset child abandoning a game and the totally undiplomatic and apolitical "You know well how to kill" statement he punched on the face of Peres might produce some long term consequences.

Diplomats' unspoken code
Let’s stop acting like an ostrich, pull our heads from sand and see that Erdoğan's behavior at Davos was a serious violation of the diplomats' unspoken code. The injuries he has done to Turkey may be deep and long-standing but because of the code few will be seen.

What is that code? Briefly, it has four parts: 1. Know your objectives and serve your country (or your employer); 2. Work as effectively as possible to obtain those objectives; 3. Encourage the climate that will make it most possible to obtain them; and 4. Use silence, distortions and lies as necessary but don't get caught.

Erdoğan's intense storm at Davos seriously damaged the climate for Turkey and will continue to do so. It was a major violation of the unspoken code. The efforts of others to maintain the best climate for their own interests in relation to Turkey will call forth dexterity, tact and subtle skill to deal with both Erdoğan and the new surface and undercurrents he has created. Consider only these among many after-effects:

w Peres dealt with the Erdoğan exit almost immediately by seeking peace or at least detente, whether or not he really believed what he said. He had worked a calculus of Israel and Turkey's long-term interests, went to the telephone and ate some humble pie -- even if he didn't feel any should be on his plate.

w The Turkish military worked its calculus and declared that its relations with Israel were unimpaired and would continue smoothly. The Turkish military needs Israeli weapons; the Israeli military needs the use the Konya Air Force training facilities, as well as the Turkish airspace; etc.; neither wants a strong enemy where they could have a friend.

w The U.S. and the EU mumbled or practiced avoidance or silence because they didn't want to increase their distance from Turkey and their influence over it. They also worked out their own calculus of long-term self-interest.

Many parties have worked or reworked their calculations as a result of "the Davos incident" but they know the code and will play by it to deal with Erdoğan and the Turkey they now see. Obviously, in this wild driver role Erdoğan has done much more than just scare a few pedestrians and other drivers.

It would have been great if this article could be dedicated to Çetin Altan, 82, one of the great masters of word who received Sunday the Culture and Art Grand Award of the Culture and Tourism Ministry in appreciation of his life-time contributions to Turkish literature and cultural life. Altan, apart from being one of the greatest contemporary writers, has always been a man of integrity who, as Culture Minister Ertuğrul Günay rightly stated, even at the times of military coups, for the sake of defending his ideals and upholding democracy, preferred to suffer hardships and prosecution rather than accommodating himself to the "political reality" of the time or allowing himself be allured with some expectations from the coup administrations.

Speaking Sunday at the same ceremony in Istanbul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan underlined that without writing and ideas the world would not have been able to attain the present advanced civilization and therefore he saluted Altan who paid a high price for his thoughts. He said "to endure" was the foundation of democracy and underlined that today’s Turkey was neither the Turkey who brought Altan to the door of court over 300 times, nor that kept eminent poet Nazım Hikmet behind bars for more than 12 years and compelled him to die in exile. He said the Turkey which was producing groundless fear, was being replaced today with a free Turkey.

Altan has been writing since 1943, that is since he was in his teens. Many generations grew up reading his articles. Most of his articles have survived the test of time. Articles that he wrote one or two decades ago can be read today as if they were written yesterday on some very recent events. Altan was shy at the ceremony. "I am not used to such treatment. I was not expecting to be presented such an award. Men of literature are not used to such treatment (in this country). I am afraid, people will have suspicions about myself. This is a great surprise to me; I am puzzled," a shy Altan said as he received the award from Erdoğan and Günay.

Was he wrong? Put aside the over 300 times he faced the courts because of what he wrote and once received a punch in his face in Parliament (at the time when he was a deputy from the legendary Workers Party of the 1960s), even today are not critics under pressure of all sorts in this country? Was not the prime minister Ñ the same one who boasted during the award presentation ceremony that Turkey has become a free country Ñ called for boycott of the media critical of the performance of the government twice within the last few months? Was not a crowd Ñ apparently pre-arranged Ñ welcoming Erdoğan, the "conqueror of Davos," at 2:00 a.m. Friday morning attempted to lynch newsmen after the premier "ordered" that no journalist should attempt to criticize why he walked out the Davos panel or to support the way the moderator administered the panel? Were not the prime minister, his party people and his gang of merry men in the allegiant media attacking writers and journalists who dare to say "Erdoğan was right to have a reaction to the insult he was subjected at Davos but walkout was an act of over-reaction?"

Still, it was good to see Erdoğan at least paying lip service to the notion that without writing and free thought humanity cannot advance. Though he might not accept being criticized, he can at least call for tolerance to adverse ideas because "to endure" is the root of democracy.

An interesting interview

There was an exemplary interview in Monday’s Milliyet with Silvyo Ovadya, the leader of the Turkish Jewish community. Ovadya was stressing that Turkish Jews were not demanding tolerance but they were asking respect to the Constitution and the rights of Turkish Jews as "equal citizens" of this state.

What else? Turkish Jews are apparently fed up with the across the board vilification of Jews in the name of defending the "right cause" of the people of Gaza who suffered a human tragedy in the hands of Israel last month. What is the responsibility of the Turkish Jewish community in the policies and the actions of the Israeli state on Gaza? Other than having the same belief, nothing. But, when reactions are not confined to the Israeli state but directed against all Jews, that becomes anti-Semitism and makes our Jews vulnerable as well. Naturally I cannot summarize the entire interview with Ovadya here, but the interview by Devrim Sevimay is definitely a must read, particularly for Erdoğan before it becomes too late.