George Bush has his "beacons" of democracy

PanARMENIAN.Net - "Europe only benefits if Turkey is integrated into the EU, since Turkey could become the bridge between Europe and the Islamic world," said the President of the USA. However, the U.S. President has rather strange "beacons" of democracy; speaking about Turkey or Georgia. "Both countries have to face the problem of terrorism, and the Kurdistan Workers Party is a terrorist organization, which threatens Turkey, Iraq, and everybody else who wants to live in peace," said the U.S. President. The President of Turkey stood next to Bush with a smile and added that "His country and the USA have common approaches and common urge towards working for the sake of peace and prosperity, as well as fighting against PKK."

It happens so that all the problems regarding with the human rights and democracy in Turkey are now solved and that the only problem left is the one with the Kurds who have been fighting for more than 30 years. The truth is that after September 11, 2001 Turkey received a "present" in the form of PKK, which is a terrorist organization and against which Turkey needs to fight with the help of the American tax-payers. Turkey is the very country which will never miss the chance to involve other countries in the resolution of its own problems, especially countries like the USA or Russia, at worst. However, things are not that smooth with Russia yet, instead everything is quite fine with President Bush. It's very unlikely that the Bush Administration and the Department of States are not aware of the existence of Article 301, which is very far from democracy and the values it practices, or of the blocked borders with Armenia, or of the oppressions of the religious minorities in Turkey, which have become hostage because of Ankara's stubborn unwillingness of recognizing several historical facts, such as the Genocides committed against the Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, the pressure upon the Oriental Orthodox Church, and the ban on own history.

The truth is that not everyone in Turkey is quite happy with Gul's visit. The leader of the oppositional Republican People's Party Deniz Baykal, in his speech made during the session of the parliamentary fraction of his party, criticized the President's visit to the USA. The RPP leader said that the international meetings are very important, but it is not right to make everyday contacts out of them. "International visits are very encouraging, however, allowing these visits to make the relations ordinary and cast doubt on their main point is wrong," emphasized Baykal, writes the newspaper Hurriyet.

Perhaps after all there is democracy in Turkey; one of these days, a series of comics about the adventures of homeless dogs having the names of Muslim-heroes has been published in one of the most famous newspapers "Milliyet". It should be mentioned, that the dog is considered an "evil" animal in Islam. True, these were not caricatures the Prophet Mohammed, but it was something unacceptable either. Demonstrations are held in front of the building of the editorial office and religious organizations, those who are not happy with the comics are going to have legal proceedings with the editorial office. By the way, last year in March the Government of Turkey was in legal proceedings with the "Penguin" (satirical newspaper). The newspaper had published a caricature of the Cabinet, picturing them as animals, and the Prime-Minister Recep Erdoghan was pictured as a cat, which is considered a cunning animal by the Turks. Erdoghan prosecuted the "Penguin" for it, but lost the case. The respondents managed to gather a number of examples of using images of animals in political caricatures in Turkey in different periods, but some other cases connected with political caricatures are being investigated in Turkish courts at present. But the best image of the current condition of the human rights and freedom of speech is reflected in Article 301, the amendments of which are again canceled. It is not a mere coincidence that the article published in the Turkish Daily News entitled "The 301? Forget about It!" According to the author, everything leads to "redecoration", to be more exact, in the new version the term "Turkishness" is replaced with "the Turkish Nation", and the "Republic" is replaced with "the Turkish Republic". The EU is actually right, since regardless the great pressure from the USA and NATO, it still rejects Turkey into Europe. As for George Bush, we can still understand the reason of the statements that he makes. After the failures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Middle Eastern regulation, he needs at least one little victory, to give the Republicans a small chance in the upcoming elections in November. Yet, he is not very likely to succeed in this, since Europe has made up its mind not to give up for anything, as Sarkozy says.