How Turkish media embarrassed Goebbels
About 120 weeks after (then foreign minister) Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu accurately predicted that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s days in power were numbered and (then prime minister) President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan promised that “we shall soon have prayers of gratitude in Damascus” (after Mr. al-Assad’s downfall), the Turkish military, in alliance with its Kurdish nemesis, heroically crossed into Syria to move the tomb of a 12th century Turkish sheik – Suleyman Shah - to a spot by the border. It also destroyed the remaining monument in the only officially Turkish territory outside Turkish soil.
Mighty Turkey had to retreat in the face of threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levent (ISIL), with help from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) next of kin in Syria. That, according to Mr. Davutoğlu, was “a night of honor.” One newspaper ran the headline, “The world is talking about the success of Operation Suleyman Shah.” Other headlines said: “The Turkomans are proud,” “No permission, we just went there and took it,” “We hit whoever stood on our way,” “The epic [tale] of Shah Euphrates.” And many more… All of this must have embarrassed Goebbels, and remind this columnist of the old joke:
Two middle-aged couples unexpectedly meet after several years of not seeing each other. They once lived as neighbors and their daughters were best friends. When one family left the town, they maintained correspondence at first, but eventually lost touch. Happy about their coincidental meeting, they decide to get together at dinner in which the immediate curiosity was about how each other’s daughters are doing. “Tell us, how is your daughter? What has she been doing?” asks one father.
The mother tells the story of her daughter: “Well, our daughter, you know her, she did not finish college. But hers is a real success story. We spent a great deal of money to finance her modeling courses. She really wanted to become a top model and then an actress. But because she was too beautiful and successful her classmates were jealous of her, and she was expelled from the course. But you know her, she never gives up. Fortunately, there are still kind people around who appreciate modesty and good manners.
“One night, when our daughter was out at a bar with her friends, she met this elderly man who owns a group of companies. He quickly appreciated our daughter’s corporate savvy and offered her a job at one of his companies. She would work there as a trainee. It was difficult for her to wake up at 11 a.m. every morning and go to the office and work like a dog until 3 p.m. The poor girl suffered a lot but tried to go to the office at least twice a week.
“Then the owner of the company, God bless him, assigned our daughter to a strategic department. He really appreciated her talent in corporate affairs. But her new position was extremely demanding. Often she had to stay with her boss in the office until late in the evening, or she had to accompany him at dinners to entertain clients until early hours of the morning. Poor girl, how she struggled to make a living…
“But she got promotion after promotion. Her boss could not even travel anywhere for business without her. Her salary rose 20 fold in just two years. Her boss trusted her so much that he would not hire or fire an employee without consulting her first. In appreciation, he rented a luxurious flat for her, just a few blocks away from the office, so she could concentrate on her work better. He gave her an office car and hired a driver for her. Not to mention the fact that he also flooded her with expensive gifts.
“Effectively, she is now running a whole group of companies. Poor girl, she had an unlucky start but, thank God, her hard work, determination and talent have been finally rewarded.”
Proud of his daughter’s story, the father asks his friends: “So tell us, how your daughter is doing?”
The mother briefly answers, “Well, our daughter has also become a prostitute, but we probably can’t portray it as nicely as you do.”
