Armenian as an ‘insult’

Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek has sued writer Hayko Bağdat on the grounds the writer insulted him in Twitter. In the tweet which was considered insulting, Bağdat wrote, “They have given Ankara to an Armenian, what a shame.”

Gökçek’s lawyers, in the petition they submitted to court, said, “For a person who is so much loved and respected by the people, this word which was used with a disgusting meaning was a heavy violation of the personal rights of our client as well as hugely disrespectful toward all those who support, love and respect our client.”

It is impossible for me to understand why the word “Armenian” is “disgusting.”

The words Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, Greek, British, German, Italian, etc. refer to an “ethnic” belonging. They cannot be considered insulting; those who use it as an insulting word and who perceive it as insulting word are committing a racist hate crime, let’s be clear of that fact first.
 
On the other hand, who would believe an Armenian would use this word as an insult?

Obviously, in those days when the “I’m sorry but Armenian” matter was debated, Bağdat would have been making a joke. 

However, in this country, for a long time, instead of laughing at jokes we have been stuck in a situation where we draw an insult out of them. Nobody is laughing; nobody makes fun of themselves. “Grave seriousness” has become stuck on people. 

Bağdat’s last book, “Gollik,” was published by İnkılap Publishing House. In it, Bağdat wisely and light-heartedly makes fun of himself, his identity, his immediate environment and everybody else; I recommend you read it. I wish Gökçek’s lawyers had also read this book; there would have been no need for them to open this case…

The PM should name this situation

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is an interesting person. When I listen to his speeches, the rhetoric he uses gives me the impression we live on a different meridian. 

For instance, he spoke like this the other day: “We did not have any communication problem with our president on any matter in the past seven months. If there is a flaw in the information flow, this could be eliminated. If there are differences in evaluation, this may be discussed. Nobody should be expecting chaos over a scenario that there is a difference of opinion between the government and the president.”

We know the difference of opinion is not a “scenario” because the president himself declared this difference of opinion. It was nobody else but the president who said, “There is a communication problem. Let’s bring the presidential system and leave this behind.”

If there is a “scenario,” then the scriptwriter is sitting in Beştepe Palace. The prime minister had declared the “transparency package” as his first major move; when the president said, “You will not be able to find a district head of the organization for the party or a mayor,” the prime minister had to give up the package he had announced with a press conference.

Do I need to recall the Hakan Fidan incident? Or the “security package,” which was to be revised through talks with the opposition, but was hastily brought to parliament? Or the Dolmabahçe declaration and the monitoring committee?

Nobody has an “expectation of chaos.” The thing we are living through can only be called this, nothing else. The question is: who is running this government?

If we need to name it, then let’s not name it “chaos.” Let’s be polite to the prime minister.
Well, then, what do we call it?

Back two rows

Davutoğlu said Istanbul would make it to 25th place in the 2018 list of “World Finance Centers.” Not a lot of time has passed since he said this, since it was only the last week of 2014.

A new list has been issued and Istanbul fell two places from the previous list. While it had been in the 42nd spot previously, it lost its place to Casablanca and fell to 44th.

In order to find the answer to why Istanbul is going backwards, let us look at what kind of criteria is sought to determine the ranking. The first is corruption and the rule of law. If you cannot curb corruption and cannot apply the laws equally, then you lose points. Second are tax laws. They need to be simple, just, predictable and transparent.

Third is the human resources issue. Knowledgeable, well-educated and talented human resources are needed, but our education system is not even able to teach Turkish decently.

As a result, this is a country where politicians are trying to bankrupt a bank… What is going on here never escapes the attention of those who monitor these kinds of developments in the world…