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Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Jan 27 2012
The footsteps of fascism
by Burak Bekdil
The headline read: `Wanted: 60 good senators!'
This is the Turkish mood over the French Senate's vote that
illegalized the denial of the Armenian genocide (now along with
Holocaust denial). In other words, all 348 French senators are `bad
senators' if they fail to collect 60 signatures for an appeal to the
Constitutional Council against the bill.
`Why are the French bad people?' I overheard a 6ish-year-old boy
asking his parents at the next table at a restaurant. `Not all
French,' his father replied. `Their president is a bad man.' How
bizarre! Nicolas Sarkozy was almost no one when the French Lower House
passed a bill that recognized the Armenian genocide 11 years ago. Now
he is the `bad man' ` because he single-handedly blocks Turkey's
well-deserved membership in the EU?
In response to former GOP presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick
Perry's remarks that Turkey is `a country that is ruled by what many
would perceive as Islamic terrorists ` and hence its NATO membership
should be questioned,' a shrewd statement from the Foreign Ministry in
Ankara said `Turkey joined NATO when Mr. Perry was 2 years old.'
Quite right. But applying the same logic, I should remind the Foreign
Ministry that Turkey officially pushed the button for EU membership
when Mr. Sarkozy was only 4 years old! Turkey was a door-knocker while
Mr. Sarkozy was a child, a teenager, a young man, a grown-up, a no
one, a president ` and it will remain so probably when Mr. Sarkozy has
become an old man, too.
So, France-bashing is the new trend after several months of
Israel-bashing. Or will the Turks manage to perform both acts? Until,
of course, another foreign nation / Parliament / leader does / says
something to overshadow both Israel and France. Hopefully, the
ruthless Turkish retaliation machinery will cool off Turkish minds
with punishing measures.
Last month, the state football betting company had delisted French
games from its list of bets. This week, Hürriyet reported Turkish
First Lady Hayrünnisa Gül refrained from inviting the wife of French
Ambassador Laurent Bili to a luncheon she will host for the lady
members of the corps diplomatiques of Ankara. However, in between the
lines, Hürriyet's story informs us that Madame Bili actually lives in
France!
Inspired by the first lady's retaliatory creativity, here are my
humble suggestions to teach the bad French men a good Turkish lesson:
Turkey should disqualify France from the 2012 European Football
Championship in Poland and Ukraine; Turkish companies should stop
transferring nuclear energy technology to France; and, finally, Turkey
should veto France's EU accession as well as its permanent seat at the
United Nations Security Council.
According to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an, the French genocide
bill symbolizes `the new footsteps of fascism in Europe.' The bill
certainly is not Voltairesque, but the footsteps Mr. ErdoÄ?an hears
must be coming from not so distant lands.
We learned just this week that Turkish prosecutors demand an 11 year
prison sentence for a student who was caught last year with three eggs
in his bag, which the prosecutors believe he had intended to throw at
President Abdullah Gül during an academic ceremony. Eleven years in
jail for three eggs not yet thrown! Like a life sentence for the
author of a book not yet published¦
Mind you, last year, the European Court of Human Rights received
nearly 9,500 complaints against Turkey (not France!) for breaches of
press freedom and freedom of expression, compared to 6,500 in 2009.
No doubt Mr. ErdoÄ?an is right about the footsteps he hears. But he's
awfully wrong about their source.
January/27/2012
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Jan 27 2012
The footsteps of fascism
by Burak Bekdil
The headline read: `Wanted: 60 good senators!'
This is the Turkish mood over the French Senate's vote that
illegalized the denial of the Armenian genocide (now along with
Holocaust denial). In other words, all 348 French senators are `bad
senators' if they fail to collect 60 signatures for an appeal to the
Constitutional Council against the bill.
`Why are the French bad people?' I overheard a 6ish-year-old boy
asking his parents at the next table at a restaurant. `Not all
French,' his father replied. `Their president is a bad man.' How
bizarre! Nicolas Sarkozy was almost no one when the French Lower House
passed a bill that recognized the Armenian genocide 11 years ago. Now
he is the `bad man' ` because he single-handedly blocks Turkey's
well-deserved membership in the EU?
In response to former GOP presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick
Perry's remarks that Turkey is `a country that is ruled by what many
would perceive as Islamic terrorists ` and hence its NATO membership
should be questioned,' a shrewd statement from the Foreign Ministry in
Ankara said `Turkey joined NATO when Mr. Perry was 2 years old.'
Quite right. But applying the same logic, I should remind the Foreign
Ministry that Turkey officially pushed the button for EU membership
when Mr. Sarkozy was only 4 years old! Turkey was a door-knocker while
Mr. Sarkozy was a child, a teenager, a young man, a grown-up, a no
one, a president ` and it will remain so probably when Mr. Sarkozy has
become an old man, too.
So, France-bashing is the new trend after several months of
Israel-bashing. Or will the Turks manage to perform both acts? Until,
of course, another foreign nation / Parliament / leader does / says
something to overshadow both Israel and France. Hopefully, the
ruthless Turkish retaliation machinery will cool off Turkish minds
with punishing measures.
Last month, the state football betting company had delisted French
games from its list of bets. This week, Hürriyet reported Turkish
First Lady Hayrünnisa Gül refrained from inviting the wife of French
Ambassador Laurent Bili to a luncheon she will host for the lady
members of the corps diplomatiques of Ankara. However, in between the
lines, Hürriyet's story informs us that Madame Bili actually lives in
France!
Inspired by the first lady's retaliatory creativity, here are my
humble suggestions to teach the bad French men a good Turkish lesson:
Turkey should disqualify France from the 2012 European Football
Championship in Poland and Ukraine; Turkish companies should stop
transferring nuclear energy technology to France; and, finally, Turkey
should veto France's EU accession as well as its permanent seat at the
United Nations Security Council.
According to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an, the French genocide
bill symbolizes `the new footsteps of fascism in Europe.' The bill
certainly is not Voltairesque, but the footsteps Mr. ErdoÄ?an hears
must be coming from not so distant lands.
We learned just this week that Turkish prosecutors demand an 11 year
prison sentence for a student who was caught last year with three eggs
in his bag, which the prosecutors believe he had intended to throw at
President Abdullah Gül during an academic ceremony. Eleven years in
jail for three eggs not yet thrown! Like a life sentence for the
author of a book not yet published¦
Mind you, last year, the European Court of Human Rights received
nearly 9,500 complaints against Turkey (not France!) for breaches of
press freedom and freedom of expression, compared to 6,500 in 2009.
No doubt Mr. ErdoÄ?an is right about the footsteps he hears. But he's
awfully wrong about their source.
January/27/2012
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress