From: Dogan Goecmen (Dogangoecmen@AOL.COM)
Date: Fri Dec 29 2006 - 10:24:36 EST
Jerry, sorry, I should have added that in the survey Chavez's and Che's names were mentioned more often than Tayyip Erdogan, the contemporary primeminister of Turkey. Cheers Dogan In einer eMail vom 29.12.2006 15:05:58 Westeuropäische Normalzeit schreibt Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM: > Chavez was one of the few names refered to by the people. Some of > the people asked said sponteniously: *I wish Hugo Chavez could become > Turkey's president.* Dogan: Thanks for the explanation. I guess it's not surprising under the circumstances you describe that some replied by declaring wistfully their preference for Chavez. After all, he has a large and growing reputation internationally and is looked towards with hope by much of the Left. I would be somewhat surprised, though, if Chavez was currently more popular in Turkey than Sheikh Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. There is much that many in Turkey should find appealing about Nezrallah: for instance, Hezbollah's military success this past summer against Israel aggression and their effort to build a popular front by reaching out to both religious and non-religious Shiite, Sunni, Christian, and Druze communities in opposition to the US backed government. The reports from recent demonstrations in Lebanon are very encouraging in this regard: indeed, it was commonplace for people to wear the symbols of clothing associated with divergent tendencies and communities as an expression of this desire for unity and genuine self-determination. Hezbollah also has an excellent reputation in poor communities of providing social services to the poor independently of the state. I would think that all of this would be very appealing to many Turkish communities, no? In solidarity, Jerry
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