It is unbelievable. It is as though there is no other country in the region but Turkey. What happens in Syria, Iraq or Crimea has no effect on Turkey and the hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have taken refuge in Turkey are not here to save their lives, but for touristic purposes!

The only things worth following in this world are the political developments in Turkey, because overtaking a government naturally means overtaking the world. It is therefore not possible to determine the government based solely on electoral outcomes.

In the meantime, fabricated tapes may appear and political parties that perceive the ballot to be incidental may base their campaigns on these tapes.

There is a story by Aesop with a moral for the politically handicapped, who think coming to power depends on lobbying rather than winning elections. You may not remember it, so let me remind you once again.

Lobbying and perception management

The inhabitants of the forest were going to hold an election to appoint a new king.

The donkey lobbied well and won the election by developing a successful distortion of perception. However, he was not able to believe the results and found it strange that he was elected King of the Forest among all the other strong creatures.

The next day, he went for a walk in the forest, partly to relieve himself of his own disbelief. "Was I really elected king, or is this just a dream?" he asked himself.

As he marched through the forest, he saw a wolf sleeping under a tree. He hee-hawed before approaching it, which made the wolf jump to his feet, throw himself on the ground and howl, "Your majesty."

The donkey felt the rush of self-confidence through his body and started walking again. He hee-hawed before approaching any animal he met, who in return would throw themselves on the ground and say, "Your majesty."

After a while, he saw the lion under another tree. He slowly approached it and heehawed into its ear. The startled lion leaped up and killed the donkey with his claws.

The moral of the story? The lion did not know about the election.

Oppressive government

Since it is possible to escape actual agendas by hiding behind fables or anecdotes, lets continue with one by Confucius. An old woman living alone in a cottage in the mountains was complaining to Confucius, "There is a wild tiger around here that attacks whatever it sees. I am so afraid of it that I cannot leave my cottage. I am going to starve to death soon."

Confucius scolded the old woman and said, "Perhaps you should move to the city rather than live up here all alone. There, you will meet no tigers or wolves." The old woman objected and said, "But there is an oppressive emperor there."

Moral of the story: Oppressive leaders who disregard laws are more frightening than tigers.

Showing empathy

A young man took his girlfriend to the zoo. The girl insisted on seeing the chimps, so they went but the cage was empty. The young man found the caretaker and asked, "Why is the cage empty? Where are the chimps?"

The caretaker replied, "The chimps are mating in the back."

The young man asked, "Do you think they will stop mating and come up front if we offer them a banana?"

The caretaker laughed and said, "Would you?"

Moral of the story: Only expect sacrifices from others that you are able to make them yourself.

Speaking the same language

Perhaps the problem is that we are not speaking the same language? An anecdote goes like this: Two cats came across each other. The first cat said, "Meow meow," the other cat replied, "Woof woof." The first cat became angry. "Why don't you just meow like everyone else?" he blurted out. The second cat laughed and said, "My brother, everyone speaks a second language these days."

Moral of the story: What is important is not to know a second language, but to speak wisely in the ones that you already know.