Two notable people the late comedian did not impersonate

Daily Cumhuriyet has listed the unforgettable personalities of comedy star Levent Kırca, the beloved actor we lost earlier this week. 

I looked at the list; everybody is there: There is Atatürk. There is Süleyman Demirel, Bülent Ecevit. Even Necmettin Erbakan. There is also Bill Clinton. He even impersonated a despot like Ghaddafi. 

Ahmet Kaya, Fatih Terim, Yaşar Kemal, Nâzım Hikmet, Hıncal Uluç and even former Chief of General Staff İlker Başbuğ are on the list. 

There are only two names that are not on the list: One is Kenan Evren, the mighty president of the Sept. 12 military regime era; the other is Tayyip Erdoğan, the “chief” of this era. 

What do you call this? One is the military coup d’état leader, the other is the “chief” of a civilian intermediate regime… Is that a coincidence or a tragic similarity? 

As a matter of fact, Levent Kırca had, once upon a time, impersonated Erdoğan also. It was in a sketch called “The Democracy Building.” His wife Emine Erdoğan was also in it. 

Erdoğan was the mayor of Istanbul in those times. 

There was an imaginary conversation between the couple. 

Erdoğan: “The doorbell is ringing.” Mrs. Erdoğan answers, “Why would the doorbell ring in daytime,” (with a pun of stealing in Turkish).  

Erdoğan: “No honey, they are knocking at the door. Those at the door were police and they were detaining the young girl at the apartment across the hall on the grounds she was a terrorist.” Then they came and arrested the journalist and the unionist on the lower floors. While all of them were “taken,” Erdoğan was happy, saying “good.” 

Finally their door was knocked on again and this time he was “taken” because he cited a poem…

What a sad sketch… Once upon a time, in this country, satirists would be able to create humor about everybody, create fun. 

If today I meet President Erdoğan at any place, I would tell him, “I wish your parodies were still made today, president…” 

You would be more comfortable; so would we. So would our country.   

And this tragic comradeship with Evren would not have happened. If your parodies existed, if comedians would make fun of you, then you would not only be the “chief” of the palace but everybody’s president. 

I wish, oh, I wish we had a president embracing all of us these days. A president of Turkey who would stand out and give hope and confidence to all of us, who would grieve for massacred citizens without any discrimination, who would pull together the shattered politics; who would calm everybody down as a competent psychologist and act as the head of the state…

Now, come think of it. Do you really need to be a powerful chief, an all-powerful one-man and an “immune” president? Is that absolutely necessary? 

Which clause in our current constitution is preventing the execution of this patriotic mission? The powers given to the president as head of state in the parliamentarian system are more than enough. As long as you have correct intentions…  As long as you don’t get caught in greed for more power upon calculations of polarization, hate…

Even this short silence was good for all of us. Even this felt good. 

Freedom of gambling or media

In Ethem Sancak’s newspapers, there is a strange silence, a gloom… The police are silent, they are silent and the space is left to gossipers.

Websites are full of these rumors. Claims and rumors are mixed. The attack on Murat Sancak with 21 bullets is said to be an issue of a gambling debt. 

I don’t understand why they are so silent. It is a state of a human. What if he has gambled and lost big time and is not able to pay his debts?

Even if this is true, should 21 bullets be fired at a person in the middle of the street? 

For this reason, if this is true, say it. 

If you are intimidated by his rage because of misleading the president who has backed you, thinking this was an attack on the media? 

Go and apologize, make him pardon you; let this be over. 

I don’t know about anybody else but on my part, I promise, if this is a gambling issue I would only say, “Poor you, I hope you recover.” That’s all. Promise… This is a promise of the guy who grew up in Izmir’s Kahramanlar neighborhood.