From the columns2

Deplorable act of a local administrator:

Hürriyet's Doğan Hızlan also comments on the local administrator's order and says he got goose pimples reading the lead story in Radikal on Wednesday, which reported on the story.

Hızlan says that if Pamuk's remarks require a reaction, everyone, as rational individuals, are capable of displaying their own response, adding, “However, this local bureaucrat has violated the freedom to decide whether or not they will react to someone's words or deeds or not.”

“Another perplexing thing about the incident was the fact that there were no books by this contemporary writer in any of the state libraries of this Turkish town,” says Hızlan, adding, “If people allow such intolerance on the part of a local administrator, then every other politician could start ordering the seizure of books by writers they dislike.”

Reply from Karayalçın to Baykal:

Milliyet's Fikret Bila comments on the transfer of some deputies from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) to the Social Democrat People's Party (SHP).

Bila mentions SHP leader Murat Karayalçın's response to CHP leader Deniz Baykal. At the beginning of the week Baykal said the resignations of the five deputies, who later joined the SHP, were of no consequence. “They have made a move only to receive Treasury funds,” said Baykal, Bila reported. Baykal also criticized the SHP for cooperating with the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) in the 2002 elections.

Bila says Karayalçın called him and conveyed his response to Baykal's statements. Karayalçın says the CHP itself also negotiated with DEHAP to launch a cooperation for elections. “Baykal himself was selected as a deputy as a result of a CHP-People's Labor Party (HEP), [widely regarded as the predecessor of DEHAP] election coalition,” Karayalçın said, reported Bila.

Bila also quotes Karayalçın's comments concerning Parliament's passage of a bill annulling a previous article which had stipulated that a party with at least three deputies would be eligible for Treasury grants. Karayalçın said the Treasury funding was a right that promoted democracy by supporting small parties, in the process enabling them to compete with larger parties. Karayalçın also said the SHP would appeal the article's annulment at the Constitutional Court.