Me as a voluntary adviser to the prime minister
I don’t have the capacity to become the chief adviser to the prime minister. For example, I have no idea about the methods of assassinating people by telekinesis. But God has given me another talent. I am a good text reader. That’s the reason I will act as a volunteer adviser to the prime minister today.
The topic is the collective ad given to The Times signed by outstanding cinema, music and plastic arts artists about the Gezi incidents. Because the chief advisers are after telekinetic conspiracies, they may not have been able to evaluate this letter fully.
They may have told the prime minister, in accordance with the dominant mood these days, “Sir, a few eccentrics, so-called artists have come together and signed a paper.”
The prime minister probably took this and put it alongside the interest rate lobby, money barons and the çapulcu (marauder) lists.
What I am saying is that it is not so simple Mr. Prime Minister.
Here I go; I am explaining this text to you, free of any consulting fees. I have named it the Sean Penn dictionary.
- DICTATORIAL RULE: In the text, the administration in Turkey is described as dictatorial rule. Its meaning is clear. World-renowned artists regard the regime in Turkey as such.
-NUREMBERG RALLY: This is the harshest expression in the text. This is used to define the mass rallies Erdoğan held during the Gezi incidents. The German original of the English word is “Reichsparteitag.” It is used for the mass propaganda organizations the Nazi Party in Germany held between 1933 and 1938 after Hitler came to power. It refers to rallies and party congresses held in stadiums and large squares. In other words, this is not quite relevant to democracy.
- JOURNALISTS IN JAIL: It is reported that number of journalists in jail in Turkey is higher than the total number of journalists in jail in Iran and in China.
- ATATÜRK AND SECULAR REFORMS: This is remarkable in the sense that it demonstrates how the world sees that leader at a time when Atatürk is denigrated as a “drunkard” and “dictator.”
-EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS: An international accord to guarantee human rights. It went into effect in 1953. Turkey signed it one year later. The artists are now saying, “Your country, which was one of the first five or six countries to ratify the convention, should abide by it now.”
- COUNCIL OF EUROPE: In 1949, 10 countries signed the founding agreement for the Council of Europe. Turkey signed it three months later. Famous artists are telling Turkey, “You have a commitment.”
-STRASBOURG: One of the most striking sentences of the letter is this: “Consequently, your orders, which led to deaths of five innocent youths, might well constitute a Case to Answer, in Strasbourg.” In other words, it says, because of these orders of yours, Turkey may one day become a defendant at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
I don’t know whether his advisers informed the prime minister about this letter. If they did, I don’t know what they said. But these are the dictionary meanings of the concepts contained in the letter.
Phrases such as the interest rate lobby, coup plotter and marauder can find followers domestically. They do not internationally.
Ertuğrul Özkök is a columnist for daily Hürriyet, in which this piece was published on July 26. It was translated into English by the Daily News staff.