Beware, a new generation specializing in potatoes is coming!

“They asked me where John F. Kennedy International Airport is. While I was thinking about the answer, the district governor said: ‘He had a girlfriend with blonde and curly hair like yours.’ When I said I didn’t know the answer, he said: ‘It was Marilyn Monroe.’

“He came up with another question. ‘What did Kennedy’s wife do when she found out that her husband cheated on her?’ These questions surprising me. I couldn’t answer them. “I was dismissed from my job because I failed in the interview. Even though I was working in the culture department, they assigned me to the gardening and cleaning department. I did my best to fulfil my duties. But later I was dismissed. Of course, I objected to it.”

These remarks come from Gülcan Öztürk, a local woman who started working as a subcontracted worker in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır and was interviewed in order to be taken onto the formal payroll.

The district governor of Bitlis, one of the districts of Diyarbakır, Turgay Gülenç, who also led the examination board, which consisted of five people. He told daily Habertürk that Öztürk was libeling them.

“We just asked her who John F. Kennedy was and where John F. Kennedy Airport is. She said it was in Istanbul so of course she failed the verbal exam,” Gülenç said. “She started to libel us after failing the exam and we will take necessary legal action against her. We hired her on the recommendation of a friend, but she had problems and couldn’t do her job properly. The questions in the interview were not easy but they were not too difficult either,” he added.

Among the other questions asked to candidates in that verbal exam were: “Where is singer İbrahim Tatlıses from?” “Who administers trains in Turkey?” “Who is in charge when the president is not available?” “How many districts does Diyarbakır have?” and “What is the population of Bismil and how many villages does it have?”

We have previously seen interview questions hit the headlines and be discussed in parliament after some MPs submitted parliamentary questions about them.

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Zeynep Altıok brought the interview questions asked to subcontracted workers to the agenda a month ago, complaining that they are irrelevant and inappropriate. Altıok gave some other examples of these questions. :

- How many children and grandchildren does the President have?
- How many pillars of Islam are there?
- How many letters does your name have?
- What is the name of the mufti of Konya?
- What is the meaning of Surah Tebbet?
- What were the names of Ertuğrul Gazi’s parents?
- Who are the main characters of the TV series ‘Eşkıya Dünyaya Hükümdar Olmaz’?

Previously, we have seen reports of many other irrelevant questions like “Did Mehmet the Conqueror eat potatoes?” or “How many ping pong balls would fit to a plane?”

Many criticize the posing of such questions, but let’s look at it from a different perspective. Let’s not harm our unity and solidarity. Thanks to these interview questions, we will have a brilliant cadre in all fields – from the education sector to the justice system, from local authorities to other mechanisms of the bureaucracy.

Just imagine…

A person who knows both how to be a good teacher and the cast list of a popular TV series...

A person who knows both how many ping pong balls can fit into a plane and who is an expert in parks and gardens...

How wonderful!

What can possibly happen to a country governed by people who have correctly answered such questions?

We will certainly make many breakthroughs in technology and science.

Go for it, Turkey!