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Ostrich Syndrome

Transsexual diva Bülent Ersoy joins a long line of prominent public figures, including Orhan Pamuk, in undergoing prosecution for thoughtcrime. Criticizing the military is, as the BBC's Sarah Rainsford points out, a gamble. But what the military and its allies in the judiciary have to realize is that they have lost this one. It is no longer feasible, let alone desirable, to suppress all criticism of how the Turkish state has managed its Kurdish problem. If uncritical admiration of the military was ever established hegemonically, it has broken down by now. This is not in itself a problem. There is plenty to admire about the Turkish military. It should realize that criticism is not the enemy - that there are worse enemies, including complacency and paranoia. Let the Diva voice her concerns, let the writers examine the problem and propose solutions. The debate will be healthy. More to the point, it is already going on and is unlikely to be stopped now. So the best move is to get heads out of the sand and into the discussion.

Terror attack in Yemen

It's a small, sad world. Reports just coming in of an attack on the US Embassy in Sana'a feature Ryan Gliha, Embassy spokesperson. A decade ago, I was doing that job for the Brits in Egypt, answering questions from the media and the public about the attack on tourists at the temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor. In those first few hours after the attack, we couldn't know when picking up the phone in the Embassy's impromptu incident room whether the person on the other end would be a tabloid journalist or a parent worried about her or his backpacking child who might or might not have been in Luxor at the time. A few days later I represented the Ambassador at a memorial ceremony held by the Governor of Luxor. It all remains very vivid for me.

I know Ryan a little from when we graduate students together with a common interest in Islam and Central Asia. I can only wish him well now as he does what I know to be an exhausting job, emotionally and otherwise.

Saved for the assassin's bullet

So the AKP government avoided being deposed by the 'secularist' (actually Kemalist sectarian) judiciary, getting away with a wrist-slapping (see last post.) And now President Gül is off to Armenia. Now, on the one hand, it's football, the nearest thing we have to a universal human religion, so maybe he'll be fine. On the other hand, rabid nationalists on both sides - Turkish and Armenian - will be lining up to take a shot at him. I only hope the Turkish and Armenian security people decide to do their job well this weekend. The AKP has a strong enough popular mandate to actually do something about their country's poor relationship with Armenia. And Armenia should take note of what a dodgy ally they have in Russia, given what they just got up to next door, and perhaps take this opportunity to thaw relations with Turkey (and, even, Azerbaijan by proxy.) There's change I can believe in.