DONKEY
HIDE
(Publication
Date: March 26, 2007)
Donkey hide is tough.
It does not get damaged
that easily!
Interestingly, donkey
hide is even necessary for art.
***
Your newspaper Vatan ran
this sentence as its headline yesterday:
“What does he think he is?”
A meaningful, engaging and
intriguing headline!
Questions and answers
about this headline and its details are running through my mind.
In other words, I’m asking
questions and answering them myself, in my own way!
How?
Question: Why did Vatan
newspaper run this headline?
Answer: Because of the words
of Papadopulos, the ‘leader’ of the Greek Cypriot administration.
Question: What did Papadopulos say?
Answer: He said, “Turks should
come up with more intelligent ideas.”
Question: I wonder if
Papadopulos’s brain can even grasp our intelligent ideas?
Answer: What? Did you say
brain?
Question: Is Papadopulos
an expert on “intelligent ideas”?
Answer: No, but we’re
not letting on.
Question: Then why does he
tell us to “come up with more intelligent ideas” like this?
Answer: He can’t grasp
the ideas we come up with.
Question: What do you mean?
Answer: Here’s what I mean:
When Papadopulos says this, what he’s really saying is, “Hey, Turks, make your ideas fit my brain capacity; I can’t understand them.”
Question: Hmm. So,
is that all Papadopulos said?
Answer: No. In short, Papadopulos
says this: The Turkish side should come up with more intelligent ideas, take the necessary first step to start negotiations, and then, after doing so, the Greek side will provide all the necessary opportunities.
Question: What is he
trying to say?
Answer: He wants the soldiers
on the Turkish side and the people who came here from Turkey and settled to leave, Greek properties to be returned, and the TRNC authorities to pursue a policy of capitulation.
Question: So, what does he
think he is?
Answer: Didn’t we say? An
expert on ideas…
*
Question: Come on, stop
joking around.
Answer: All right, all right... Look,
my dear friend, this man thinks he is the sole ruler of the island, that the Turkish side is a minority, and that he himself is very clever. On top of all this, with these words he wants to send the world the message that the Greek side is very keen to find a solution, but that a solution has not been reached because of the Turks’ foolish ideas and/or their failure to take action. In other words, he is continuing to deceive the world.
Question: But isn’t this a case
of “It’s not a holiday or a feast day, so why has my brother-in-law kissed me?” Why would he say something so ridiculous out of the blue?
Answer: Actually, he isn’t
saying anything ridiculous.
Well, he is saying something ridiculous, but it sounds ridiculous to us. Yet (I can’t believe I’m saying this) by his own political standards, with these words he is making a clever move.
Question: Look at that…
Answer: Yes, with these words,
he is trying to pre-empt any move by the TRNC, aware of the momentum building within the TRNC over the Cyprus issue, which was brought to the fore by the “Enough Already” headline about what our President said the other day. In other words, Papadopulos is already portraying any radical decision the TRNC might announce on Cyprus as foolish and irrational in his own estimation, in the eyes of world opinion.
Question: So our President’s
response had an impact on the Greek side?
Answer: As far as I can see,
it did; but as I said in this column last Friday, we should stand by those words and take the necessary radical decisions.
Question: All right, but
what does the title of the article have to do with this?
Answer: When I read this news
item, which Vatan newspaper announced on its front page, you know how we have an expression, “like donkey hide”? Well, that expression came to mind, and these shameless, brazen policies pursued for years by Papadopulos—and, by extension, the Greek side—made me want to say, “Come on, brother, don’t you ever blush? What a hide!”
Question: What does it have
to do with art?
Answer: The materials used
in shadow theatre are made from donkey hide.
Question: What does it have
to do with Papadopulos?
Answer: You figure that out.
Question: So when are we
going to eat?
Answer: I don’t know! It’s
probably ready… Let’s finish this article, then we’ll eat…
Question: Is it finished?
Answer: Yes…
Until Wednesday… Be respectful
in traffic!
All texts and other content on this page are original and belong to Cem KAR. They may not be used, even partially, in any form in print or any other electronic medium (CD, Internet, etc.) without permission.