The donkey of Hodja

Neither Kadri Gürsel nor his freedom can be compared to a lost and found donkey, but our situation is very much like a Nasreddin Hodja joke.  

One day Nasreddin Hodja lost his donkey. As Hodja very much needed his donkey to go from one place to another, he was very much affected and became desperate because of his donkey's absence. He knocks on every door, consults all neighbors and asks them if they saw his donkey. The donkey was missing and no one apparently had any idea where it might have gone. A while later Hodja finds his donkey in a nearby field and starts repeating out loud, "Thank God!" Wondering what happened, why he was thanking God, neighbors ask, "Hodja, why are you thanking God so much?"

All smiles, Hodja tells the neighbors, "I have two reasons. Both are very important. First, I am grateful that I was not on the donkey when it was lost, otherwise I would be lost too." The neighbors burst into laughter and ask Hodja, "Come on Hodja, be serious. What is the other reason?" With an even bigger smile on his face, Hodja replies, "I am grateful because this incident showed how blessed I am. God saw me desperate, hopeless and in vain. He made me lose my donkey and then let me find it … I am a blessed man."

We are blessed people, perhaps not as blessed as Hodja, because we have not yet seen all those important people who have been deprived of their freedoms and banished to the prisons of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) free. The release of Gürsel, of course pending trial, has been our demand as has been our fundamental demand for the release of all journalists. Under the Turkish constitution and the procedure of trials, arrest is an exception and could be applied under certain conditions. Besides the fact that...