{"id":106834,"date":"2014-03-25T22:06:51","date_gmt":"2014-03-25T20:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=106834"},"modified":"2023-04-06T14:15:54","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T11:15:54","slug":"election-day-turkeys-rendezvous-with-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2014\/03\/25\/election-day-turkeys-rendezvous-with-death\/","title":{"rendered":"ELECTION DAY: TURKEY\u2019S RENDEZVOUS WITH DEATH"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"barricade\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have a rendezvous with Death<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>At some disputed barricade,<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>When Spring comes back with rustling shade<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>And apple-blossoms fill the air–<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>I have a rendezvous with Death <\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>When Spring brings back blue days and fair.<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>
\nAlan Seeger, (22 June 1888 \u2013 4 July 1916)<\/b>
\n<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I have a rendezvous with death<\/i><\/b>\u2026John F. Kennedy\u2019s favorite poem. From war hero to \u201cCold-War warrior,\u201d then on to late-life enlightenment as president of the United States. He saw the lunacy of war and the chance for \u201cpeace in all time.\u201d And so did his \u201cenemy\u201d embodied by Nikita Krushchev. And for that, on 22 November 1963, John F. Kennedy was murdered by agents of his own country. And Krushchev would later spend his forced retirement-years weeping in desolation.<\/p>\n

That horrific day, in that blinding sun, in that criminal Dallas street. At a half-hour past high-noon, Kennedy was trapped in the assassins\u2019 hellacious cross-fire. And that head that had conjured peace exploded all over the world in a spray of blood and brain tissue. Mobster government. Mobster American gore. And his murderers, these felons, gaped and grinned, mumbling to each other, \u201cServed the bastard right. Next time, don\u2019t mess with peace!\u201d And no one has since, not even the Nobel Peace Prize winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI speak of peace,\u201d said Kennedy, \u201cas the necessary, rational end of rational men.\u201d For that, these forces of darkness, these enterprises of war, these lowlife patriotic charlatans gunned him down. I was twenty-three, a new army lieutenant. I loved Kennedy, his youth, our youth together, his hopefulness, his intelligence. They killed me too, that dark day. They killed many rational men and women, that infamous day. They killed rationality that murderous day.<\/p>\n

America? Peace? West Point? War? Big business? Guns? Politicians? Truth? Missiles? Poverty? They killed the world that day! And like some grotesque cancer, \u201cthey\u201d live still.<\/p>\n

And now it is today, fifty years later. And today we see Turkey at its disputed barricades embroiled in a life and death struggle against these same forces of darkness. It is called AMERICA. And in a few days Turkey will vote. For whom? Why, of course, for America! Who else? Aren\u2019t Americans clever? Of course they are.<\/p>\n

Turkey is, I mean, was, a revolutionary nation founded on these words by Mustafa Kemal Atat\u00fcrk, \u201cPeace at home, peace in the world.\u201d This same Turkey now sponsors and exports terrorism and death. What gives it the right? It\u2019s puppet-certificate issued by that great puppet master, America. Turkey, its banana republic puppet government knows no depth too deep and stinking to satisfy America\u2019s imperial ambitions. And the money and the license to steal is convenient, too.<\/p>\n

Brave Turkey! It obeys American orders to trump up incidents for war. It shoots down a Syrian fighter that is attacking, not Turkey, but terrorists forces in Syria that are supported and supplied by Turkey and America. Terrorists that eat the organs of their mutilated enemy. The Turkish prime minister and the Turkish president cheer the dropping of the Syrian jet. Isn\u2019t war grand sitting on your fat backsides in your plush chairs? \u00a0Sure it is. How brave they are.<\/p>\n

The main opposition party (CHP), having a few days before shouted that Assad is a dictator that kills his own people, supports the downing of the plane. Hell, don\u2019t they know that killing your own people is no big deal anymore. Look at Erdo\u011fan!<\/p>\n

But the CHP could care less about young lives lost. It proved that in its disregarding the youth of Gezi Park. That Turkey and America and the other backers of the Syrian mayhem are committing war crimes also escapes the main opposition party. So a vote for either AKP or CHP is a vote for American criminality and aggression. Yes, Turkish elections are a marvel of democracy. Yes, they are indeed. And the fact that southern Turkey is now crawling with religious terrorists escapes the CHP, too. Some main opposition party! But who cares about that when one can crawl in the sewer looking for votes?<\/p>\n

Poor Syria, so close to Turkey. It had thought that the Turks were their friends. Well, too bad for them. When it comes to matters Turkish, DO NOT THINK! And so close to the religious bigot Erdo\u011fan who is out to genocide the Alawites of Syria. They are his fellow Muslims. But who gives a damn about religion when the sewer of American money is involved? Erdo\u011fan the Conqueror has helped destroy all the secular states across North Africa and the Middle East. Hooray for America! Hooray for Allah! Hooray for Erdo\u011fan! Vote for AKP! Vote for CHP! Vote for America! Vote for DEATH!<\/p>\n

The claim that the Syrian plane, which in its straight-down death spiral landed well inside Syria, violated sacred Turkish air space is absurd. First, there are no longer southern borders in Turkey. Terrorists come and go with ease. But such ignorant arrogance is the trademarked \u00a0response in what passes for Turkish foreign policy. Go to southern Turkey. The borders do not exist. Turkey has been completely corrupted by American needs. And speaking of corruption\u2026<\/p>\n

The prime minister and his ruling party have plundered every aspect of the once secular Turkish republic. There is no law, no security, no morality, not a shred of democracy remains. They have for years collaborated with the Fethullah G\u00fclen movement to destroy the Turkish nation.<\/p>\n

First, they cooperated to destroy the Turkish military.
\nMission accomplished!<\/p>\n

Second, they turned the Turkish justice system into a slaughterhouse of illegality.
\nMission accomplished!<\/p>\n

Now the disgraced prime minister, adored by his many rationality-challenged admirers, claims that all the bad things have been caused by big, bad Fethullah G\u00fclen, the CIA frontman holed up in rural splendor just outside Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, Pennsylvania!\u201d Erdo\u011fan shouts derisively, demonstrating the third English word he knows. It is all such a sick, stupid joke, a bad three act CIA-play that I described in my writing Final Curtain<\/b>\u00a0last November. I really don\u2019t want to talk about this anymore. And Erdo\u011fan’s ranting has driven me and most other Turks mad. A conniver and a deceiver, he is in his “Eagle’s Nest,” shouting at the moon.<\/p>\n

But the CHP has gone one better. Even Erdo\u011fan wouldn\u2019t dare this nifty maneuver. It has made a pseudo-alliance (in Turkey, all alliances are pseudo) with the \u201cHey Pennsylvania\u201d movement. Hard to believe? Not in Turkey. Dismissively called “Feto,\u201d\u00a0G\u00fclen’s\u00a0movement has\u00a0been out to destroy secular Turkey for decades. That\u2019s why Feto raced to America and into the loving embrace of the CIA and green card happiness in Pennsylvania. The cute swindles called Ergonekon and Balyoz were inspired by Feto as \u00a0frontman for the CIA. Tayyip Erdo\u011fan is a creature of the CIA. And now the main opposition party is a creature of the CIA. The entire voting process is a creature of the CIA. What worked for the juntas in South America is alive and well in Turkey. Viva la CIA!<\/p>\n

So by all means, Vote!
\nErdo\u011fan\u2019s AKP has brought you America\u2019s version of Turkey.<\/p>\n

Yes, Vote!
\nThe CHP has brought you yet another American version of Turkey.<\/p>\n

Surely, you should do your democratic duty\u2026
\nVOTE!<\/p>\n

Feto, having slimed his way through the arteries of the secular Republic of Turkey for years, gives you the super-duper American version of Turkey. But either way you get him.<\/p>\n

Of course, you could vote your conscience. But that never mattered much.<\/p>\n

But be thankful for one thing. Unlike for John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the \u201cnew\u201d American government doesn\u2019t blow peoples\u2019 brains out in broad daylight any more. Unless you happen to get in the sights of a drone or attend a wedding in an open field. Or are wandering around southern Turkey.<\/p>\n

Yes, this Sunday, 30 March 2014, Turkey will have a rendezvous with death when spring brings back blue days and fair.
\nBut will the air be filled with apple blossoms?<\/p>\n

James (Cem) Ryan
\nIstanbul
\n25 March 2014<\/p>\n

ALLAH’S BOYS<\/b>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>TURKEY’S POOR PLAYER<\/b>
\n<\/b>
\n\u00a0<\/b>
\nFINAL CURTAIN<\/b>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

I have a rendezvous with Death\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>At some disputed barricade,\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>When Spring comes back with rustling shade\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>And apple-blossoms fill the air\u2014\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>I have a rendezvous with Death<\/b>
\n<\/b>When Spring brings back blue days and fair.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

It may be he shall take my hand\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>And lead me into his dark land\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>And close my eyes and quench my breath\u2014\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>It may be I shall pass him still.<\/b>
\n<\/b>I have a rendezvous with Death\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>On some scarred slope of battered hill,\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>When Spring comes round again this year\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>And the first meadow-flowers appear.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

God knows ’twere better to be deep <\/b>
\n<\/b>Pillowed in silk and scented down,\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>Where hushed awakenings are dear…\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>But I’ve a rendezvous with Death<\/b>
\n<\/b>At midnight in some flaming town,\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>When Spring trips north again this year,\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>And I to my pledged word am true,\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\n<\/b>I shall not fail that rendezvous.<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Alan Seeger, uncle of Pete Seeger<\/b>
\n<\/b>1888-1916<\/b>
\n<\/b>Killed in action at Belloy-en-Santerre, France, during the Battle of the Somme.<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a rendezvous with death\u2026John F. Kennedy\u2019s favorite poem. From war hero to \u201ccold warrior,\u201d then on to late-life enlightenment as president of the United States. He saw the lunacy of war and the chance for \u201cpeace in all time.\u201d And so did his \u201cenemy\u201d embodied by Nikita Krushchev. And for that, on 22 November 1963, John F. Kennedy was murdered by agents of his own country. And Krushchev would later spend his forced retirement-years weeping in desolation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":106835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}