Erdoğan is everywhere, every day

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, out of the blue, without context and without relevance, started talking about women, their preferences, childbirth, how many children the almighty God wants them to have, and about “deficient” and “complete” women. When he does that, certain know-it-alls start repeating the same old chorus: “Tayyip Erdoğan is trying to change the agenda.” 

Some suggested he was trying to overshadow the recent approval of the Armenian resolution in the German Parliament. Others said he was trying to make people forget about claims that he can’t be president according to the constitution because he doesn’t have a university diploma. 

Let me ask: If he was trying to make the German Parliament decision be forgotten, would he have said in other remarks – tinged with racism - that the Turkish-German MPs “have bad blood, their blood should be tested”?  If he wanted to obfuscate about claims that he does not have a university degree, would he refer to the matter publicly and call on his university to “take out his diploma”? 

It seems that many people have not been able to fully grasp the style of Tayyip Erdoğan all this time. Let me explain what Erdoğan wants to do.

While he is trying to blow an anti-Western and nationalist wind over the decision made by Germany, he wants to give certain topics - such as woman, children, and childbirth - to the opposition to get worked up about. Upon the ongoing claims about his diploma, he wants to show how yet again he is being victimized. 

Through the issues of women, children and childbirth, he wants to make those parts of society that are angry at him get even angrier, while on the other hand making those who are loyal to him get even more loyal. He doesn’t mind that pro- and anti- fronts are formed around these topics, because he doesn’t doubt that the number of those loyal to him is far higher than the number of people angry at him. 

He does not want to change the agenda. He wants to set the agenda: At schools, in coffeehouses, in restaurants, in the street, in the printed media, on television. He wants only the topics he has assigned to be talked about. He absolutely does not want any other topic to be on the agenda.  

He does not want citizens to have a minute without Tayyip Erdoğan. He wants to be everywhere, every day. 
So what does the opposition do against this strategy? Let alone setting an alternative agenda, they do not even have the ability to monitor the agenda Tayyip Erdoğan has set. 

In this case, if you were Tayyip Erdoğan, would you also not play with Turkey like a piece of dough? 


Who does Cem Özdemir serve? 

Meanwhile, what was the government saying when Cem Özdemir, the German MP of Turkish origin and the co-chair of Germany’s Green Party, was praising the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party)? What did they say when he said: “Turkey has been able to achieve pluralism with the AK Party”? Or “Turkey is normalizing thanks to the AK Party”? Or “the AK Party has achieved bigger changes than any changes made since 1923”?  

The government was indeed saying, “Bravo Cem Özdemir. He is a true democrat who can see the facts.” 
But when he started criticizing the AK Party, and when he approved the resolution on the genocide issue at the German Parliament, what did they say? They said “this Cem Özdemir is close to the Doğan Media Group.”
God bless you! 


‘Half-men’ 

If women who choose not be mothers are called “half-women,” then those men who choose not to be fathers should also be called “half-men.” 

Even while interfering with people’s personal choices one should try to be “just.”