Impressions on the roof candidate"s debut

I''ve watched Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu from the eye of a broadcaster and took all of the requirements of political communication into account. Following are my impressions related to the live broadcast...

1- His voice is low and flat. His sentences are smooth, but because of his tone of voice the content not understandable. Following his speech is even hard for an EU group audience.

2- No headlines nor message comes out of his speech.

3- He explains a topic distributively with details instead of focusing on it. This makes the speech hard to listen to.

4- It''s impossible to understand his feeling. Neither his voice nor his facial expression shows any sign.

5- He is behaving extremely humble. This resembles some kind of arrogance.

6- His speech has this ''I''ve said it once, there is no need to repeat'' air about it. He thinks that he doesn''t need to explain himself. The ''I don''t need to explain myself, you should make an effort to know me'' message is making itself felt.

7- As a religious person, he had paid attention to the secular sensitivities in studies in Turkey and also paid attention to complete opposite sensitivities at totalitarian Arabian countries that are ruled by monarchy. An extremely balanced profile, originated from a successful life story, is reflecting on his speech.

8- The businessman image is dominant.

9- He doesn''t know the language of the streets. This reveals itself in all aspects. Both in Turkic and Arabic countries, he had been closer to palaces rather than the streets.

10- It''s hard to picture him, sitting at the poor''s table with knees bent, or shaking a dirty hand. He gives the image that everything around him should be sterilized.

11- As to why the public should vote for him, no important messages can be received other than: coming from a privileged family, foreign country experience, his culture and his status-quo fit religion.

12- He doesn''t have any strong message explaining his view on democracy.

13- When I''m watching him, Cemil Meriç comes to mind frequently. Especially his ''Politics only consists of an envelope/we should direct our attention to enclosure rather than the envelope'' words. I guess why his speech reminded me of Cemil Meriç or Tanpinar was the effect of his extreme equilibrium language when he was speaking of the stones that knitted his identity on me. Being a scientist, a man of culture, western and eastern at the same time, he is respected by the nationalists and left-wingers. These are qualities that cannot fit in a phrase because of their natures! ''Perfection'' brings the question ''How much of it is real'' to the mind. He needs explanations that are more natural.

14- He doesn''t give the feeling of someone who has an issue or a case with the world and humanity. His ''Manner-wise I had accepted it'' words on the Presidency offer is confirming this.

THIS RAMADAN

As ''Ramadan Aunties'' (we are a bunch of ladies visiting Istanbul mosques for prayer in Ramadan for the last couple of years), we had visited three mosques, which we thought might have been left out. The Mesihpasa Mosque(Being mentioned in Samiha Ayverdi''s ''Imam of Mesihpasa'' novel) that is lost in Laleli. The Kalenderhane Mosque next to the Vezneciler Girl''s dormitory and the Gül Mosque close to Balat. Both had been built as churches in the 9th or 10th century, and transformed into mosques after Istanbul''s conquest. The situation report regarding these mosques, which almost all of us had seen for the first time, is as follows...

Landscaping has been done, and hygiene-wise, was well groomed. Imams are aware of the history of the mosques and quite interested. They say that there are many students and professors from foreign universities visiting these mosques. What''s important in these mosques is – rather than the place reserved for women – their congregation is almost close to zero. An amount equal to the number of fingers on a hand is being regarded as a crowd. In the first week of Ramadan, as a Z report, this is respectfully submitted.

THIS RAMADAN

Before, Ramadan programs would be broadcasted on religious TV channels and newspapers would only set places for the least discussed and most compatible ''hocas''. During this elapsed time, this attitude has relatively changed. This Ramadan, Ali Raze Democrat''s preparation of Harriet''s religious questions page and Star TV''s broadcasting of a sahur (sunrise breakfast) program, while Kanal D did so last year, had caught my attention.