Mea Culpa

Two interesting apologies have been on the news recently.

For those who have based their idea of Turkey on the movie 'Midnight Express', it may have come as a surprise that now also Bill Hayes publicly apologized for the 'terrible and unfair' picture of Turkey that the movie presented. The screenplay was based on Hayes's novel where he described his five years in a Turkish prison serving a sentence for drug possession. A few years ago screenwriter Oliver Stone apologized for the film. Although the motion picture was set largely in Turkey, most of the location work was done in Malta, using local actors along with some Greeks and Armenians playing Turks. It has been rumoured that the movie was also produced and promoted partly with Greek and exile-Armenian money.

Another noteworthy apology was delivered on Saturday when President Boris Tadic of Serbia officially apologized for the suffering caused by Serbia to the Croats during the 1991-5 war, when 20,000 Croats perished. Tadic was interviewed on Croat television. He also said that he takes his share of the responsibility for what happened. None of his predecessors has apologized for Serb aggression in connection with the break-up of Yugoslavia. President Stipe Mesic apologized in 2003 for Croatia's share of the hostilities.

Now, who around here loves Serbs, Greeks and Armenians? I guess we'll hear Boris Tadic apologize even for Serbia's slaughtering of some 8,000 Kosovo Albanians before 'vkarlamov' will admit that the Serbs have ever done anything even remotely blameworthy.

Леп поздрав,
John