CONSTITUTING RUDENESS
Written by Thanos Kalamidas – OVI Magazine

Newropeans Magazine, France
March 29 2007

Now we know there is one country in this world where it is
constitutional to be rude and you are in danger of imprisonment if
you call somebody …Mister. However sad it may sound, it is true and,
furthermore, the latest person under investigation is the very prime
minister of the country. Do you want to go one step further? The
accused prime minister is leading his country to enter the EU, the
most democratic institution in the world at this moment!

I think you have guessed correctly that the country is Turkey. The
prime minister is Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his crime was to call
the imprisoned former leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
Abdullah Ocalan ‘Mister’ in a speech one year ago to Turks living in
Germany. It sounds weird but if you think of the menace with which
the Turkish republic is dealing with all minorities it should not be
a surprise.

Again the issue is not that Turkey’s prime minister is under
investigation because he called an obviously opposition leader
‘Mister’, the issue is not if this country demands a place in
modern and democratic Europe, the issue is that this country has
no idea of what dignity is. Before the current Gulf War, American
president George W. Bush often had to refer to the Iraqi president,
yet in every speech he made, it didn’t matter how threatening he was,
he never missed to call him Mr. Saddam Hussein. If anything else,
he showed respect to the human side of this monster and despite the
mistakes that followed Saddam was a proven monster.

Mr. Abdullah Ocalan, from his side, is a very controversial persona
but still it is very unfair for both Iraqis and Kurds to put him in
the same position as Hussein. For the Kurds – and there are millions
of Kurds living in Turkey, Iraq and Iran – they have suffer the worst
under the regimes of these countries, so Mr. Ocalan is a hero who
wants nothing more than the liberation of his nation.

He wants recognition and peace for a future where Kurds can freely
learn and express themselves in their own language and their own
traditions. Nothing more, nothing less than what so many other nations
have demanded throughout history. It is a surprise that the Turks
are so keen and easy to understand the Palestinians but they ignore
the Kurds, even worse is that they often imprison and kill them just
because they declared that they are not Turks but Kurds.

Europe has often stated that Turkey has a lot of work before it
can call itself a democracy and since Turkey’s prime minister is
the person who really sees the future of his country in Europe,
he should understand now better that the worst enemy for Turkey is
herself. How does he think European countries will deal with another
country that has a law that prohibits anybody to call another human
‘Mister’ – it is not just prejudice but also racist.

What is this person? Is he an animal or something lower than the other
citizens of Turkey? Only months have passed since Turks marched on
the streets mourning for the murder of an Armenian-born editor and
that day we all felt that suddenly something changes in this country.

People started to realize that tolerance is the key that will open
the doors to Europe; tolerance in every dimension of their lives,
tolerance to religious and ideal differences.

Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has really tried for the last three years
to show us that what we think of Turkey is not real, that Turkey is
a country that improves with huge steps into democracy and is the
solution for Europe to total tolerance; and then he himself becomes
victim of a fascist and racist law. Furthermore, this is not the only
fascist, prejudice and racist law, the latest court cases with known
intellectuals, authors and editors in Turkey is the proof.

If Turkey’s Prime Minister Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Mr.

Abdullah Ocalan "Mister", the only thing I can do is congratulate him
but if there is a law that stops him to refer with dignity to anybody
despite their crimes then I feel sorry for him and I feel sorry for
all these Turks that are dreaming of a better future because their
own state pulls them back to a horrible past!

By the way, I just noticed that I called Mr. Abdullah Ocalan "Mister"
a few times, so I’d better stop planning any visit to Turkey for the
next …millennium!