No more al-Assad and Morsi in rallies

Haven’t you noticed this weird silence amid all the noise?

There is a “parallel state” in rally areas...

And in the most explicit manner...

There is “our daughter with the headscarf in Kabataş.”

(This is the case of the woman who claimed to have been harassed by mobs during the Gezi Park protests)

Yes, we have the Kabataş issue everyday...

In each election, there is the need to create an enemy...

So, as usual… There is the media...

As if the media is also entering the elections, there are nonstop threats, blackmail, yelling...

There is everything. But are you aware of it?

Two things are absent...

“Bashar al-Assad,” or “Esed,” as the Justice and Development Party (AKP) calls him, and Mohamed Morsi.

Why not? Where’s the Friday prayer to be made in Damascus?

Where’s the four-finger Rabia salute?

Why have these two issues dropped from the agenda, lost their popularity?

Simple…

Both of these policies have failed.

That’s why.

Both policies have hit the wall of Turkish public opinion.

That’s why…

In other words, there are no votes in them...

When there is no vote, there is no Rabia show, nor outcries for “al-Assad.”

What does that mean?

Very simple…

The Syrian and Egyptian policies have turned upside down in the invisible referendum.

In other words, the “parallel diplomacy,” designed and conspired in Ankara’s Çukurambar neighborhood (where the Foreign Ministry is located) has been deconstructed by the people.

That’s why we don’t see much of the foreign minister around.

I am curious about the woman in Kabataş

The prime minister keeps mentioning the name of the young woman in Kabataş on each occasion every day.

Knowing it is a lie, he keeps forcing the wound to bleed.

I wonder how that young woman feels to be an issue of the dark politics of electoral campaign rallies.
Each time he opens the subject in his electoral campaign speech by saying “our sister with the headscarf,” a large majority in Turkey screams back “It is a liiee!”

What’s he trying to do?

Is he settling an account of a case that hasn’t been proven, and is in fact clearly not true at all?
Or…

Is he trying to get votes from the lie surrounding the woman?

Tahrir 1106 km, Maidan 1185 km

Ankara, raise your voice...

The government that came to power through elections has been toppled in our northern neighbor.
Where, do you ask??

In Maidan Square, Ukraine’s Tahrir Square.

Now, all eyes are on Ankara.

Everybody is expecting the lion of democracy in Ankara to roar, for national sovereignty’s most courageous jihadist on earth to shout...

But then what happens...

Tiny news in newspapers’ innermost pages. A miniscule official statement coming from the depths of Çukurambar.

Not even a statement, a tiny whisper, hard to even hear...

“Hopefully there will soon be elections...” etc. etc...

Only three to five months ago, the whole region was to be asked to us... right?

Let me give you some geographical information.

Ankara to Cairo is a 1106 km flight.

Ankara to Kyiv is a 1185 km flight.

Draw a line from Tahrir to Maidan and put your finger right in the middle.

That’s Ankara.

And make a call there.

“Is anybody there?...”

If there is no answer, then you can conclude that Erdoğan is again in the election rally, talking about Kabataş. He has gone into a parallel world.

Since the Foreign Ministry is now left to sound people, the statement is a statement that would be made by a wise neighbor.

In other words, if that friend gets his hands and tongue cut off from Çukurambar, we will all relax... and the region too.

Ertuğrul Özkök is a columnist for daily Hürriyet in which this abrigded article was published on Feb 25. It was translated into English by the Daily News Staff.