To Kill and To Write

They'll never let it go. It's been years since they've murdered Hrant. The only unlawful thing he did was to write. He was cautioned by the government before his death. He was told that if he keeps on writing "things would happen to him and his family". Law enforcement officers knew about the plan to end his life. Even on the Internet, if you search about dialogues among law enforcement officers on Hrant Dink's death, you can reach recorded telephone conversations proving this knowledge. The trial is going on for two years. Attorney General is asking for 20 years imprisonment for the accused murderer. The establishment is protecting its killers. The victim is a Christian, he is an Armenian and " a Turk is worth the Universe", let alone an Armenian's life.

A journalist is researching the facts behind this killing. He collects public information and writes a book about the blind spots in this case. Now he's in court. The establishment wants his life. Attorney General asks for 28 years of imprisonment. His name is Nedim Şener. He's a reporter from Milliyet daily.

Turkey is an EU candidate state. She's undergoing so-called judiciary reforms to be accepted as a member. What judiciary reforms I hear you asking. To reform something, it has to exist first.

With its recent record of judiciary mishaps, Turkey should be banned from all International forums let alone EU membership. Until the establishment in this country would be aware of the fact that in the global village every neighbor has to clean his act our of respect to his peers. Either democracy now and for everyone or marginalization in the full sense. These should be the options left for Turkey.

Clap Hands

You've got to leave I-75. You've got to get away. Leave the highway and every single bit related to it. When you're done and out, you've got to drive south. As long as it gets it out of your mind, out of your system. That's what I do at least.

Far from the madding crowds, loose among the elderly but satisfied ad icons of post-industrial society. And a tape on the player. (Listen yourself)

"..........

Shine, shine, a roosevelt dime
All the way to baltimore and running out of time
Salvation army seemed to wind up in the hole
They all went to heaven in a little row boat
Clap hands, clap hands, clap hands, clap hands"

You know the ocean is near. But it's hot. Tar is melting on the highway, and the heat is condensed in your nostrils, on your deck, near your computer screen.

Steven Hutt is putting nearby. Your eyes wander the 8th hole where he buried you last time though he has lived twice as many years. His old age is not compatible with your desires. You want a beer so bad, you've got to leave again.

But not on I-75. You got on a side state road. Where none of the fauna resembles your home state Ohio. You drive.

"Clap hands, clap hands, clap hands, clap hands"

Heat is soaking from the branches. A stink layers around your head. Did you hit a skunk? No skunks in this road. No roadkill. Only memories and music.

Memories of the past you're running from. The routine of impossible dreams. Gifts not purchased. Not given, nor taken. Gifts sizzling from your past both real and imaginary. You see an Indian drifter. You take him in. You share your lunch, your dreams, your past. He gives you his spirit. Two people don't add up. You drive...

When I am fed up with barbarism, I travel to Florida. I find my soul in the depths of Everglades. I find my soul among the crocodile faces of Key Westerns. I drink at Sloppy Joe's, I parade Duval Street in drag. Trembling down the alleys of a long lost imagination, living among lost souls in my hometown, I am not myself. I'm an outsider at an outsider planet.

Two Sides of the Same Coin/2

(Due to common Internet problems in Turkey, I can only publish this article today. Apologies to my dear readers)

Closer to a way out or provocation?

For almost two weeks every columnist in every daily in Turkey wrote about the "Kurdish problem" following a declaration by President Gül. In that speech Gül claimed that there are opportunities for a resolution. According to the official state opinion, Kurdish fighters should give up arms and end the fight against soldiers for them to even start talks. A cease-fire is not sufficient for talks to start.

An unbiased observer might find this claim reasonable. A state cannot initiate talks officially with a party that is in war with it. It is conceived to be a minimum for negotiations to start.

But here lies another Turkish state policy. As it was implemented against all minorities for centuries since the Ottoman times. Once they get you down from your mountains, once they make you sit behind a table and start to talk, these talks never end and you cannot gain anything. Furthermore, they would not talk, or continuously deny all the deeds they've done against you. You would start to forget why you have gone up on the mountains in the first place.

Example #1: They claim they did nothing wrong against the Armenians, Pontic Greeks and Assyrians back in 1910's right. To initiate talks with Armenia on Genocide they ask for an independent panel of historians to decide if it was a Genocide. Here's the catch: this panel would be served with the Ottoman archives by the Turkish State and only with these.

Example #2: They claim the Turkish Army or the gendarmerie did nothing wrong against the Kurdish villages during last three decades. And the above mentioned negotiations would be on the terms that one side would be a terrorist organization which accepted that it is, and the other party would be a legitimate state that is defending the rights of its citizens against terrorists.

The people of Kurdistan are living in minefields at one end, and a hostile army on the other side for decades. White Renault 12's are coming in with dark suits inside them to pick people up on the streets, people who never comes back. Mass graves are found everywhere with bodies washed with acid.

Yes the Kurds are fighting with guerilla tactics which can easily be considered as terrorism. But what about their enemies? What are they?

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Prefessor denies Genocide

In Turkish daily Milliyet (June 1st,2009) Professor Kemal Karpat (University of Wisconsin) shows another example of Turkish denials on Genocide. He claims that Armenians were not killed but left Asia Minor with withdrawing Russian armies to the north. Only 100-200 thousand people were forced with migration and they still live in Syria and Lebanon he claims. When pressed by the interviewer that even this number is not sufficient to call it a Genocide he escapes by claiming that "during the war more Turks were cleansed from the Balkans", and he adds that "Turkey never claimed that as a Genocide to prevent extreme nationalistic views in the society". He continues that "we should look at 150 years of history not only 1915. Then we'll see that these actions were normal results of newly founded national states of the times". He also claims that the census results of the times were wrong, there couldn't have been more than 1 million Armenians in the Asia Minor back then.

I am quoting this interview because it is a typical example of Turkish denialism and demagogy.

1. Wake up call #1: When 8000 muslims were killed in "the war" with Serbians in Bosnia, public opinion declared it a Genocide.

2. Wake up call #2: There are still effective muslim minorities everywhere in Balkans from Greece to Bulgaria, from Albania to Bosnia. Though there were several acts of racism throughout the years that were mentioned in the interview, they in fact never reached the scale of a Genocide against the Turks. Their existence in the region is a proof of that. Compare this with the existing Armenian population in Asia Minor, then you'll see Genocide directly looking at your face.

3. Wake up call #3: Ottoman census reports are wrong. Ottoman ruling party (Ittihad and Terakki) communications are wrong. Eye witness records available worldwide are lies. Two generations of hysteria conveyed by a diaspora that almost defines itself as Genocide victims in lieu of Armenians is a make-believe. Every excuse to duck the accusations of a Genocide is valid. Really, get a life!

(to be continued tomorrow.... more on the subject concerning the terror against the Kurds)

New Moon Trailer is Out!

Five and a half months to the long awaited randezvous, movie trailer for the second installment of Twilight Saga, New Moon is showing. Here's a look:

Sunday in Spring

Spring is a latecomer this year. It's arriving slowly but there are only two weeks left until the end of school year. Sudden 80 degrees in the afternoon, out of nowhere thunderstorms, a little rain now and then, are but all the remnants of incoming spring. Cesme started to get crowded on weekends. The sea has begun to blow its summer winds. Everything tells us about the northwestern winds that would blow all summer long.

Smyrna is a tad more broken this spring. People are sick and tired of weekend escapes. They need something more solid like a long holiday. Now, everyday is an escape. Every day is another one stolen from the economical crisis, from empty pockets, from despair. The fiesta of the South doesn't go well with despair. There are no short skirts this year, no shorts. Every new spring takes away a little more hope from Smyrna.

Kordelia is crowded, though pubs are deserted. If that stays the case, the spring would go away without any sign. Routinely Smyrna should go nuts in spring, go crazy with all her mind. That's the Smyrna we know, that you know. On a corner you should suddenly meet a new couple. Suddenly you should feel life in your bones. Suddenly the streets should be filled with colors from out of this world. By Easter, Smyrna should be full of spring. And it should never leave.

Now the day's gonna turn to summer. The sky'll be full of a heating sun. Coffee houses will be silent. Villagers will be busy on their land. Citizens will seek refuge in Cesme, Focai, Aivali or elsewhere. We'll be alone in Smyrna, hosted by stray dogs only. What the year 2010 will bring to this city?

The constant recession that's been going on for thirty years will continue? Or will the city hit the bottom this spring and start its climb finally?

Smyrna needs new things. She needs a spell that'll filter through her gutters, and start affecting her pavements, walls and trees. Maybe she'll start a new journey knowing that she'll always be marginalized. Smyrna needs a spell like Homeros. So that she could tell her story once more, so that she could return to her shining status in history.

A Sunday in Smyrna. A spring Sunday when silence fills all ears, when there are no church bells nor a muslim call for prayer. A Sunday in Smyrna. Awaiting the herald of joy.

What A Day!

We say here that Turkey is a heaven for writers. Today is another day like that. Just going though the headlines I was in between going crazy of laughter and crying my eyes out. Here's why:

Turkey wants changes on European Human Rights Court(EHRC) structure

Turkey's European Commission representative, of all people, Mr. Daryal Batibay criticized EHRC for costing tremendous amount of money to Turkish Republic by legislating against its defenses in too many cases. He even asks EHRC to request huge fees from applicants to deter suits. Isn't it funny? The law according to defender's needs. Mr. Batibay is confusing the law in EU with Turkey's legislature I guess, where the verdict is determined not by rules of law but who the defender or the victim happens to be! In Turkey if you are a public servant the courts must ask permission from your superior to press a case against you. That in practice means if you are protected by the government, you are above the law. Mr. Batibay now requests Turkey to be above the law of Europe. And Turkey is in a negotiation stage to become a EU member! And Turkey wants to legalize her own double standards in Europe now. One must show these Turkish officers their place immediately. That's the only education they'd respond to.

The Brazen

Mr. Zahid Akman is the head of radio and TV censorship committee in Turkey. He's a man of government. In Germany, he was accused by the attorney general for embezzling the money donated by Turkish workers in Germany into Turkey. These money were allegedly used to finance party operations instead of helping the poor, the reason they were collected for in the first place. Although all related people in Germany are already in jail, Turkey still hesitates to open a lawsuit against the alleged people in Turkey. He is the main figure among these. The second in command of the ruling party, Mr. Bulent Arinc said he asked him to resign on the onset of the case. Today he denies such a request being made, and he openly adds that the Prime Minister would protect him if necessary and he still has his support. A European counterpart would have resigned months ago. A Japanese would have committed suicide. Such brazen and shameful people are in administration in this country. And one cannot swallow it so easily. There should be something that can be done...

The Story of a Murder

A young girl gets murdered. A routine story in every country. But what makes this particular story unique is how it happened and what happened following the murder.

Her head was found in a garbage bin around a very rich neighborhood in Istanbul. Her body parts were found in several different spots around the city. She was allegedly argued with her rich boyfriend just before her death. And after her death, the boyfriend disappears.

The cops question the family of the boyfriend and let them go immediately. They do nothing else for months. The media goes nuts. They finally publish an International blue bulletin for his arrest on sight. And nothing happens once more.

Simple questions for the imbeciles who think they are cops:

1. Who can dismember a body without leaving any traces and getting any help?

2. Where was his family while he was doing these inhuman acts?

3. How did he leave the country and was he able to hide without the help of his family and their resources?

4. Why his parents are still free?

5. Can the rich kill anyone the way they want in Turkey?

Simple answers are needed.