'I killed because they were spies'

This columnist?s first of a few encounters with Melih Gökçek, the unchallenged mayor of the Turkish capital since 1994, was through a press release from the municipality, sent by fax to this newspaper, in the mid-1990s. It was grotesquely (but cutely) signed: Melih Gökçek, Lord Mayor of Ankara. It caused laughter in the newsroom. But no one knew the Lord Mayor of Ankara would not always be naively amusing.

In 2011, the nationalist-turned-Islamist Mr. Gökçek promised to erect an Algerian genocide/massacre monument right across the French Embassy compound in Ankara if the French parliament went ahead with a bill recognizing the Armenian genocide. In fact, Paris ended up recognizing the Armenian Genocide, but Mr. Gökçek?s monument still remains to be erected right across from the French Embassy compound. Meanwhile, French defense companies are making an impressive comeback to the lucrative Turkish market, with President François Hollande having risen to become President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an?s ?new Berlusconi.? 

Last summer, when a Turkish-Kurdish pop star wrote on her Twitter account, ?May God bless Hitler. He did far less [than he should have done to Jews],? the popular mayor of Ankara replied: ?I applaud you!? And when hundreds of angry Turks hurled stones and rocks at, and tried to break into, the Israeli diplomatic missions in Ankara and Istanbul, the Lord Mayor of Ankara said: ?We will conquer the consulate of the despicable murderers.? Just like the Algerian genocide monument waits to be erected, the Israeli diplomatic missions remain to be conquered.

Mr. Gökçek may have a couple of unkept promises to the people of Ankara. He may have the habit of applauding people who admire Hitler. But the Lord Mayor?s more important virtues make...