The Words That Come Out Of Our

Words Are Heavy In Turkey, And Every Writer, Every Poet And Every Journalist Knows That, Because Of A Word, Because Of A Sentence, Because Of A Tweet Or Even A Retweet, You Can Be Sued, You Can Be Demonized By The Media And You Can Even Land In Prison.

Obviously, Turkey Is Not A Typical Authoritarian Regime, And Obviously It's Very Important That There Are Free Elections. But It's Also Obvious That This Is Not A Liberal, Mature Democracy. This Is Why I Call Turkey A Wobbly Democracy. At Any Time, It Can Tip Over And Fall Down.

Identity Politics Divides Us. Fiction Connects. One Is Interested In Sweeping Generalizations. The Other, In Nuances. One Draws Boundaries. The Other Recognizes No Frontiers. Identity Politics Is Made Of Solid Bricks. Fiction Is Flowing Water.

Yeah, We Should All Line Up Along The Bosphorus Bridge And Puff As Hard As We Can To Shove This City In The Direction Of The West. If That Doesn't Work, We'll Try The Other Way, See If We Can Veer To The East. It's No Good To Be In Between. International Politics Does Not Appreciate Ambiguity.

You See, Unlike In The Movies, There Is No The End Sign Flashing At The End Of Books. When I've Read A Book, I Don't Feel Like I've Finished Anything. So I Start A New One.