If you believe it…

Two “citizens” who did not believe they were citizens of this country lost their lives when security forces finally decided the show was over, roads cannot be left to the control of the “citizen” groups unhappy with the construction of enforced military outposts. At the closed session of a government-organized “opening” workshop it was heralded that what Turks always referred to as “southern “ and “southeastern Anatolia” was indeed Kurdistan and time has come for Turkey to acknowledge the name of the region.

One may say “What’s in a name?” or ask why the use of the word Kurdistan might be considered a requirement for “opening” of a section of society while an alarming sign of a country being drifted towards separation by the guys expected to serve the state and the nation? Like the Islamist headgear no longer considered a political symbol – mostly because Islamists are in the government and secularists have become a minority – perhaps a day will come when using such names with ethnic connotation for regions would be no problem at all. Was it not that the areas were called Kurdistan and the Black Sea areas as Lazistan during the Ottoman period? Perhaps once a return to the sultanate is achieved under the absolute ruler, such sensitivities of the republican society will disappear.

In Istanbul, the same day, the absolute ruler of the country – flanked by the businessman who in those pre-March 30 video footage allegedly agreed to contribute to a fund organized by the former transportation minister to buy out a media group – was laying down the corner stone of the gigantic third airport of the city. People could not forget, but the absolute ruler had apparently...