April 24, 2011

Ankara’s secret: Stupidity or conspiracy?

Mustafa Akyol

I am not the greatest fan of Charles Krauthammer, the neoconservative columnist of the Washington Post. But the man is undoubtedly smart, and one of his insights was a true gem. “In explaining any puzzling Washington phenomenon,” he advised in his column, “always choose stupidity over conspiracy, incompetence over cunning.” The opposite, he said, gives American politicians and bureaucrats “too much credit.”

I know there are huge differences between Washington and Ankara, but there might well be parallels as well. And the more I get to know the ways of the latter, and the details of the puzzling phenomena there, the more I tend to think like Krauthammer.