Stories and News No. 1216
Turkey bans the adaptation of a play by Dario Fo into Kurdish for terrorist propaganda
Istanbul, Turkey (2020, incredibly...)
To all European and non-European citizenship, close to the border or for alliance’s reasons, joined for simple economic or strategic interest, that is, tolerant and silencing for personal gain. This is the auctioneer speaking. By unquestionable order of the Authorities, as well as on behalf of the Magnificent and Illustrious, as well as Untouchable, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the following order is announced:
First, honking the horn, on any occasion and place, with a noise somehow belonging to the Kurdish language, is absolutely forbidden. Therefore, before buying cars, motorcycles and alike, please, check the language of the aforementioned device.
Second, having the chance to move your lips close to the well-known instrument commonly called trumpet and, once blown into it, you find yourself surprised hearing any of the seven notes and any other variation of them attributable to the Kurdish pentagram, you should know that you have committed an unforgivable crime.
Third, when through the fault of your own body you will be caught emitting the most underrated and effective reactionary gesture in human history, named raspberry, but in the Kurdish meaning, you will be arrested without any appeal.
If, then, you are so bold as to stain yourself with all three serious infractions within the same instance, well, you will be really in trouble. Perhaps you are a repeat offender in your stubborn inclination to make fun of sacred government regulations, even if unfair in the eyes of your hearts and consciences. Maybe, you are one of those crazy people. I mean those creatures deluded by the lights of the scene and falsely protected by a sumptuous scenography or the theater’s wings. Yes, I am aware that from time to time, one of them surprise the exhibitors of the much larger show which theirs is staged in, taking away the Nobel Prize for literature, for instance. But despite these exceptional exceptions, that today surely would try to unmask as censuring decrees like this, usually the latter is read aloud without any embarrassment, becoming law instantly and whoever wants to obey, will do, while all the others will pay the consequences. While all the others, extending the reference beyond the barbed wire, will remain silent. On the contrary, is anybody out there?
My new book: A morte i razzisti (Death to racists)