Turkish governing party: let’s CANCEL the latest election results cause we LOST in the metropols, and reschedule a new one on summer HOLIDAY so we can fuck with the numbers, on a half-dozen party members’ whim

(I said I was doing research for this post and forgot to put it up once I was finished, didn't I...)

I'll begin with something nice, something I'd completely missed because it was such a tiny article, until I lost sleep and took a close look at the latest papers. I found out that certain civilian organizations wanted Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as candidate to the Nobel Peace Prize for his long Walk of Justice (Adalet Yürüyüşü). Reminder that he broke Gandhi's record of distance, from Ankara all the way to Istanbul, in 25 days; without a single person getting hurt (meanwhile anti-Trump protesters and BLM activists destroy public property and beat up people).

Here's also an update on Fatih Terim, the asshole with the ridiculously large salary he never deserved. I'd missed on a crucial detail: he was friends with the national Soccer Federation's president, Yıldırım Demirören who worked for AKP (reminder, the political party currently in power). That explains his paycheck and lengthy career, as well as the "compensation" he may or not have received (it's not even revealed).

Welp, back to the title's date now.

- One recent event (some serious scandal material in any modern country) is the assignment of two woman ambassadors, one to Malaysia and the other to Kuweit, with no experience in international affairs. Their only defining characteristics are: being Muslim, wearing a turban, having ties to AKP.

Merve Kavakçı is of particular interest: she had become a US citizen and sworn to work for American interests, still teaches at George Washington University. First, she was rejected from the National Assembly elections of 1999 for wearing the turban; then her Turkish citizenship was revoked for hiding her US citizenship. She also was photographed kneeling before Nazim Al-Hakkani (he had a long-ass name and was known as Nazım Kıbrısî in Turkey), the sheikh of the Naqshbandi order (a Muslim priory), presenting him her respects (wearing the turban of course). But since she's the sister of AKP president Ravza Kavakçı, she had no problem reintegrating, seeing she was made Turkish again (and ambassador right afterwards of course) this summer.

(The story of the second woman, Ayşe Sayan, is more boring - she's the sister of Fatma Berül Sayan, Minister of Family and Social Policies. Ayşe had quit her work as undersecretary there because it "wouldn't be ethical" whilst her sister was the minister. I guess she takes no ethical issue to being part of an oligarchal system where AKP is the sole party in power?)

- A shop owner in Uşak was beaten up by the mayor's guard and driver; unshockingly enough, the mayor is from AKP. The owner said he refused to shake the mayor's hand because he didn't know him; so they asked if he had any ties to terrorist parties, accused him of insulting the mayor. They then dragged him out of the shop and beat him whilst he lay on the ground, which CCTV cameras caught. Yet, during trial, they asserted the shop owner had assaulted them "with an iron bar" so they had to "restrain" him and hadn't done any violence. He, meanwhile, said they continued abusing him in the police car and his wife says the police wanted to lock down the shop.

- from July 24: Quran schools and religious student residences will be entitled to using public domains gratis for 49 years, with the option to open up parts of their domain to commerce. That's half a century of teaching nothing but Islamism to young people (mainly from the poorest backgrounds) for free whilst making profit off of it.

This also applies to other faculties and associations exempt from tax, but the Ministry of Religion has to give their okay. I should add that no domain of (mis)education, aside from religion, gets a special mention like this. Another item on the long list of ways in which the current government actively discourages knowledge and reason.

- from July 28: Status update on the Syrian "refugees", you'll soon see why I put quote marks. There's now 3M migrants since 2011, under 243k of them in 24 camps and the others in homes they bought or rented. Number of babies born in Turkey, whose needs were financed by the Turkish people of course, is right below 225k. The education of 509k kids (81k in camps) from kinderkarten to high school, courses to help 225k Syrians find work; the country spent well over 25 billion dollars on the immigrants.

> Now the reason for the quotation marks... government officials recently reminded us these people were just passing by. But in fact, they've bought homes; who fucking buys property when they're in an unstable situation? This isn't taking refuge, this is taking root - these immigrants are here to stay, with all the comforts they were given (comforts unknown to Turkish people in their own country).

- On an unrelated note, this country really likes good talkers and comedians much more than it likes competent experts. Fatih Terim is a name almost every Turk knows, he used to be the national soccer team's technical director. He hasn't helped that team win significant matches, hasn't done anything besides talk and make faces (and get into fights with people), yet was constantly a subject of discussion. He earned 1M liras each month without getting shit done; any other country would've spent that on someone who worked their balls off 24/7 and got results of historical importance. He was such a burden and troublemaker, he eventually had to either quit or be fired; now it's said he's entitled to 3.5M euros of compensation.

A few days ago, he took his goon squad to a fight with a kebab restaurant owner (his groom's sister had eaten there and didn't like the price? something like that), but they all got their bitch asses handed to them by the owner.

- from July 29: Ilbiz Höyüğü, an archaeological site in Konya, was turned into a park; with stone paths, a playground, even fitness area. The same municipality (of Karatay) had transformed another settlement from the Bronze Age, Aşkar Höyüğü, into a park.

Meanwhile in Sinop, 850 trees were marked for cutting in order to turn part of a forest into an open-air stone mining area. Villagers of Çaybaşı and a city chairman are against the project that'll cause severe harm to the local nature and pose a health threat.

And let's not forget the new bill about letting imams and priests legally preside marriages again, an outrage for anyone supporting women's rights. Since the republic's creation and the cultural and legal revolutions brought by Atatürk, marriage ceremonies can only be done by officials appointed by the local mayor. This bill will take us back to the Ottoman period, when Islamic priests could do marriages without even seeing the brides' faces and women had no right to divorce.

I'd been meaning to share this but the article was lost and then I forgot, now I found it but the date isn't on the cutout. It's about a survey on the "perception of masculinity in Turkey" (Türkiye'de erkeklik algısı) answered by 10k Turkish people on an online survey platform called Poltio. I wanted to share the results because there's a couple interesting points I wanna comment on; here's the data first:

80% of participants think it's harder to be a woman than a man, 1/3 of men say it's harder to be a man but 83% would still rather be reborn male. The men also appreciate fatherhood a lot more than marriage itself; 20% wanna marry but are scared, whereas over 90% are either happy dads or wanna be. In the latter 90%, 14% are waiting for their financial situation to be suitable and 8% are a bit afraid. Nearly 70% of participants think you can't be a "real man" until you do your military service, only 1/3 of underage folks are in that majority. Men worry most about finding a job and earning money (61%), then come: meeting women's demands (15%), finding a partner to marry (11%), the draft (8%), competing against other men (5%). Finally, 1/3 of children say they trust their fathers; 1/4 respect them, 18% are angry, 14% are scared, and a measly 12% love their dads.

Now, it's interesting that such a large majority of people think it's harder to be female, yet a majority also believes you can't be a man until you're drafted (I remember crying as a kid because I was so afraid I'd be one of the weakest soldiers in the Army). The military service is still considered crucial, even employers demand that all male applicants aged 18+ be regular; either you did it, or you had it delayed because you live abroad etc. There's a similar mentality towards circumcision (traditionally performed in awful conditions I won't detail here); conservative people think of it as a "manhood" ritual and worthy of celebration, rather than a surgical procedure that requires lots of thinking and caution.

I won't say being a woman in Turkey is easy as pie, because frankly it's a country where underage brides and wife-beating are perfectly normal to some people. But keep in mind, this is also a culture that puts women (particularly mothers) on a pedestal in its myths and legends. Mothers and sisters of soldiers are praised in the media as much as, if not more than, the thousands of young men who risk their lives, physical and mental integrity daily to protect their families. A journalist I know and like very much, Bekir Coşkun, outright said women were braver because they deal with the loss of their sons and husbands and brothers, whereas men just risk ending their physical existence (he seemed to forget about watching your friends get killed and maimed right next to you).

So-called "positive" discrimination seems to be in full swing in Turkey.

Employers were already prioritizing uneducated refugees as "cover"(?) employees, rather than thousands of locals fresh out of college. Apparently there are 10 times as many Turkish people seeking employment as there are illegal immigrants and refugees being employed.

Now a new university, Istanbul Kent University, is proud to announce they're giving crippled and female applicants an 80% discount. Because female and cripple are equal, amirite? males don't make any particular expenses to survive, amirite?

I mean I get that you wanna encourage more girls to get higher education, but... can't you do that by encouraging them directly, instead of pooling them together with the handicapped? That’d make their success and merit all the more deserved and worthwhile. While you're at it, since you have enough budget to make discounts, why not make your fees more affordable for all?

- Anniversary of the terrorist "coup" that occurred on the night of 15-16 July last year. All press channels praise the "epic tale" of the Turkish people, some of whom died from military fire while many were mutilated by bullets or tanks. The president made (yet another) long-winded speech about how "they were intending to take over the entire population and country instead of just the government". PM Yildirim also proudly bumbled on about how assertive "we" were and that " we" would've "rather died than run away. I'd like to remind everyone, these men told Turkish civilians to go out and risk their lives to protect the country in the first place, whilst these same politicians were safely cowering behind their bodyguards (or aboard the presidential aircraft). Talking to people you're supposed to protect, telling them to go put themselves in the line of fire to die, and patting survivors on the back for "bravely" resisting... something terrorist leaders might do to fresh recruits to brainwash them with stories of their "warriors" martyrdom.

- Erdogan was also caught lying on BBC about last week's Justice march. He downplayed the number of people who attended it (from 500 to 170k he said, whereas the starting area in Maltepe has a capacity of 2 million and was full to the brim with people) as opposed to those who attended his own meeting on 7 August 2016. Remember he'd done the same with the Gezi protesters he'd called "a few plunderers". You may (or not) remember the Turkish term "çapulcu", which was later proudly reclaimed by the protesters. He had organized a speech of his own, where his audience was "inflated" on photos via copy-pasting (badly).

- July 5-6: First time the government's representatives call out Syrian refugees who murder locals and steal shit. Assistant PM Veysi Kaynak says the migrants are just passing by, PM Binali Yildirim threatens to send away those who commit crimes (big fucking time).

- July 10: Greece is getting more and more aggressive about the Aegean Sea, wow. Acting like they already own the whole territory and just preparing to chase away squatters... They've taken 18 islands, all still belonging to Turkey (on paper) or "bought" for virtually zero cost (pretty much stolen); now those islands are full of weapons, with major Turkish cities (including Izmir) in range. Last week (july 3) a Greek coast guard had also opened fire on a Turkish cargo vessel (named ACT), whilst on international waters, for refusing to submit to a search. Shortly after that, in Cyprus, the Greek people made their hate clear by refusing to get water from the Turkish side; and their government demanded that Turks withdraw altogether (the historical "invasion" by the Ottoman army was in response to oppression of Turks, particularly students, by Greek authorities in the first place).