Turkish medias' strange silence

Quite a few well-known media in Turkey meanwhile could know that Turkish bloggers are banned from access to wordpress.com, as their chief columnists received emails, in which they have been told the brief fact, in which they got offered some links for basic research, in which they have been asked to start / initiate investigation and as soon as possible publish the story (behind), as it's a matter of "freedom of speech" respectively censorship!

There has, yet, not been any reply.

Does article 301 apply for Erdoğan ?

In an article published by Hürriyet, Bekir Coşkun essentially proclaimed that he would not recognize Abdullah Gül his president.

Obviously filled with deep indignation, in a "direct" response - via TV - (future Ex-) Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (RTE) said: "If he is not your president, then renounce your citizenship of this country."

As one of the politest blogger on this planet one might only say: Sic tacuisses . . .

However, can anybody imagine RTE being a philosopher?

Rather there will be a prosecutor putting his eminent magnificence on trial under article 301 for insulting the Turkishness of 53,41 per cent of all Turkish voters who did not vote for his (sic!) party.

Impossible? Cave Cihan, would-be padişah! Not in Turkey.

Thus, let's wait and . . . meanwhile read comments penned by two most respectable Turkish columnists: Yusuf Kanli and Murat Yetkin.

Nothing else to do

In case you would still doubt the correctness of Schopenhauer's conclusion wherupon genitals are the sounding-board of brain, you will find another evidence here.

Pestering Problem

Just to keep you informed about the most important problem keeping 70 million Turks on tenterhooks.

Having read this and this and this you might murmur like Tetrapilotomos:
"I did not see one single tiny hair, one could cut into four pieces."

Good to have somebody to cut the problem in pieces . . .

Turkey: wordpress-blogs banned

Aber man wird nicht sagen:
Die Zeiten waren finster
Sondern: Warum haben ihre Dichter geschwiegen?
(Bertolt Brecht)

However one will not say:
Those times were dark
But: Why did their poets keep quiet?


Replacing poets by bloggers, it's easy to know what to do after having read the following:

Turkish bloggers are being banned from access to wordpress.com!

There does not exist any official statement, yet, nor did Turkish
newspapers like TDN and Today's Zaman mention the fact.

For the beginning, a little more information here and here and here.

Turkey and Europe: The Way Ahead

The International Crisis Group has published its Europe Report No. 184.

The "Executive Summary and Recommendations" you find

in English here

in Turkish here


The full report is available as a pdf-file.

Man ... kind ... less

Writing this post took five days.

Right now, before setting the link,
by reading this article
for the third time since Monday,
suddenly I felt what ought to be done:

Cancelling all I had written.

Each word an empty one.

Güle gidin!

Being distracted from posting by my closest friend who unfortunately managed to implicate me in a discussion without any emotional blockade about prophets, quad negations, pleonasms and redudancy, I leave the field to the first Flann O'Brian Prize Winner.

Your turn, Mr. Bekdil!


And now
The Peace of the Night.

Güle gidin!

False prophet's surprise

In the dusk a man entered a village and claimed to be a prophet. The countrymen did not believe him, yet. "Prove it", they demanded.

The man pointed at the opposite wall and asked: "If this wall spoke and affirmed I am a prophet, would you believe me, then?"

By Allah, then we shall believe you", they shouted.

The man turned to the wall, put forth one hand and commanded: "Speak, oh wall!"

And the wall began to speak: "This man is no prophet. He's fooling you. He is no prophet."


As to my knowledge there does not exist an English version of Zülfü Livaneli's "Engereğingözüdeki kamaşma", published 1996 by Can Yayinlari Ltd. Sti, Istanbul,

I tried to translate the perhaps most amazing and sophisticated beginning of all novels I came to read within the past couple of years.
The author may consider my humble attempt a kind of hommage.

No need to dig up Gogol

Just to make sure that Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol will not posthumously being accused of insulting Turkishness, and - in order to serve his sentence - digged up:
When writing his "Diary of a Madman", Gogol did neither think of any future Ex-leader of the CHP who's tongue would be as swift as six arrows as long as its not about responsible politics, nor of any future Ex-Prime Minister who would call people complaining about having no water for eleven days, exaggerating; nor any future Ex-Mayor of Ankara who would rather ask those still believing in a God to pray for rain instead of retiring and henceforth humbly living in his water-tanker; nor any prosecutor keen to always - or at least ONCE - find his way in the limelight; nor . . .
[ ah, what a pity the English language does not know the word Profilneurotiker!]

Having written this, you may leave this site to learn a little more about the Turkish art of self-irony in general and in particular, here.

Not only Bush's brain is missing

When reading this, please keep in mind that Karl Rove has not yet retired!

So, what else could get lost, when goes missing what used to be called Bush's brain?

No fidel Puritans in Louisiana

After some pieces of beautiful poetry and a joyful headline-prose back to profane life.

By surfing around, at Dr. Dawg I got attracted by this headline: "Meanwhile in the Land of the Free". Clicking the title, I was invited to read this.

Don't get irritated.

You may - of course? - be curious to learn "Why Hillary Clinton Has Always Been a Republican",
but:
When scrolling just a tiny bit you'll find the story about "some traditon [that] never die":

Black Nooses Hanging from the "White" Tree by New Orleans-based law professorBill Quigley, published one day before "Independance Day" in "Fidel Puritans Own Country".

P.S. Actually, I got extraordinarily surprised when - to be on the safe side - I tried to find fidel in my various English-dictionaries.

Strange or characteristic (?): There does (obviously) no antonym exist for infidel.

Ah, well, when there are no fidel Puritans, who would need such a word?

Brainy Headline

Depending you are visiting Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe you will soon find out that a prosaic headline (in the "Independent") can be as enjoyable as poetry.

Go on then, and read the whole article . . . if you can . . .