Somebody should remind the prime minister

Somebody should remind Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu that the agenda of these upcoming elections is not “parallel, etc.” 

Somebody should remind Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu that the agenda of these upcoming elections is not “Pennsylvania.”
 
Somebody should remind Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu that the agenda of these upcoming elections is not the “Gülen Community,” the power of which is nearing zero. 

Somebody should remind Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu that the agenda of these upcoming elections is not a “coup or anything similar.”

Both of them do not know anything called release pending trial. Both of them consider a release to be tantamount to acquittal. Both of them transform the period of detention or arrest into a punishment. Both of them try hard not to release the one they have arrested. Both of them arrest those who do not pose a flight risk. Both of them arrest and continue arresting.  

I was at a synagogue 

My dear friends Sara and Sami lost their mother. To attend her funeral I rushed to the synagogue. What I have learned from this visit is this: 

The most expensive expenditure item for synagogues in Turkey is security. On the synagogue wall, it is written, “This person has undertaken the security expenditures for this month.” 

Security is so strict, it one problem to enter the synagogue; it is yet another problem to exit. 
They write down the names of those who enter the synagogue. I could not understand what this has got to do with security. 

In the synagogue, there are rows of tables and chairs just like in a church but there is a difference here: men are in the front, women are in the back. 

The synagogue part of the funeral ceremony is short, like half an hour… 

The burial at the cemetery has a huge attendance… It is possible to express your condolences to the family only after the burial. 

The Hebrew prayers Jewish religious functionaries recite in the synagogue have musical modes that are very familiar to us. 

I paid my condolences to Sara and Sami, and I prayed for their mother. 

Presidential system is a must

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu spoke at a rally in the eastern Black Sea province of Gümüşhane. He was yelling, shouting and saying “HADEPE” for Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and “CAHAPE” for main opposition Republican People’s party (CHP). 

He mentioned the cause, Pennsylvania and also parallel. However, the masses at the town square only answered to “Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.” Nobody said “Ahmet Davutoğlu.”

If I were Burhan Kuzu, I would point out to this and say, “For this reason, the presidential system is a must.” 

Locking up the imam schools? 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said this: “Their aim is to put a lock on the doors of the imam hatip [vocational religious] schools.”  

When he said “they,” he was referring to the opposition CHP and HDP. 

Well, the CHP and the HDP should clarify these matters: Will they really close the imam schools? How will they prove that anybody who wants to will be able to receive religious education freely? What kind of an arrangement will they do about the imam schools? 

The CHP and the HDP, without talking through their hat, should explain openly and clearly their policies on this matter to the people.