The fear of a $1 bill

The $1 bill paranoia is quite widespread in Turkey. Seeing that it creates trouble, people now scan their leftover banknotes from trips for $1 bills. Not everybody is a master in tampering with criminal evidence, thus this simple destruction procedure becomes quite an adventure. 

An acquaintance told me what happened to his friend: That person, when he found a $1 bill at home, tried to flush it down the toilet in a rush. Seeing that it would not flush, he had to pick it out of the toilet with his hands. First he dried it with a blow drier and then he lit a match. 

But because he was such a rookie at this, he recorded this action with his phone camera and sent it to his wife. He was happy and feeling “clean” until his wife warned him, “Are you insane?” Then he had to delete all electronic traces. All through this trauma, even though he has no association with Gülenists, he had to go through scary moments. 

Professor Mehmet Altan’s lawyer issued a statement about the $1 bills found in his client’s house. According to official data from the U.S., in 2015 there were 11.4 billion $1 banknotes circulating in the world. Nearly 1 billion of them were F series. It is impossible to know how many of them are in Turkey.
 
But it is obvious that the scattered $1 bills are causing widespread paranoia. What I am saying is just get rid of them, whatever method you use, but don’t flush them in the toilet, they do not go down. 


Instead of meeting Barzani 

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş said that certain HDP deputies would be arrested during the month of October. He said this after speaking to Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani. 

We understand that they went there seeking support for the start of a new dialogue process. At the same time, they went there to attribute to the domestic and international Kurdish public in advance on what they may have to go through.  

Those members who I have spoken to within the HDP are pointing to the second option. 

Whatever the aim, should this be the step that HDP was to take? 

For a long time the HDP has not produced any policies… Instead of speaking to Barzani, can they not search for a solution for their lack of generating policies? 

For a long time, the HDP has not had meaningful communication with Turkey’s public. 

Instead of speaking to the Kurdish public over ethnic sensitivities, couldn’t have they spoken to Turkey’s public over their democratization demands? 

For a long time the HDP has fallen back on its target of becoming Turkey’s party. Instead of converging with Barzani, couldn’t they have worked hard to become a truly nation-wide party in Turkey?

For a long time, HDP has been unable to wave the democratic struggle flag before the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) terror fetishism. Instead of clinging to Kurdish nationalism, couldn’t have they hung on to democratic politics? 

For a long time, the HDP has been waiting for the government to open a field where it can play its role. Instead of waiting desperately, couldn’t it have opened this honorable field with its own initiative?  

As long as HDP does not do its own part, Barzani cannot do any good for them or for any other. 

If they are seeking a way out, they should search for that way within their shyness, in their passive acceptance before Kandil’s will. 

Only when they stop being dependent, only when HDP policies are made at HDP headquarters, only when HDP gains its autonomy from Kandil, can they open an exit for themselves from the corner they have been pushed into.