Turkish irony?

Submitted by Richard Polirer (United States), Jun 13, 2011 at 16:53

This is the law of unintended consequences at work. Once you unleash force A, it takes on a life of its own -- and then some.

Such a tragic example can be drawn from many historical precedents, but I would cite Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand on that sunny day in June 1914. He had frozen in his tracks when the archduke's open car passed him initially. He sat moping at Moritz Schiller's deli, even contemplating suicide, like a good thwarted freedom-fighter. But the archduke intervened, as did his driver. He want to visit the wounded in an earlier failed attack on him. The driver took a wrong turn and, when alerted to his gaffe, stopped the car in order to throw the vehicle into reverse. Ironically, the car stopped right in front of Princip, who leaped onto the running board and pumped two bullets into Franz and wife Sophie.

Irony? Perhaps. Tragedy? Absolutely.

As for Turkey, Kemal Attaturk is probably doing pirouettes in his mausoleum. His revolutionary vision is now clouded by the hatred that is Islamism today.

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