Boris Johnson wins Erdogan Poetry Competition

[Anthea]

Boris Johnson wins 'Erdogan Offensive Poetry Competition'

What rhymes with Ankara? Not very much, but that didn't stop Conservative Boris Johnson writing an Erdogan limerick. He won The Spectator magazine's competition showing solidarity with German comedian Jan Böhmermann.

Former London mayor and current Conservative MP Boris Johnson won an irreverent competition in weekly British news magazine "The Spectator" on Thursday, for his limerick criticizing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Spectator editor Douglas Murray announced on the weekly's blog that Johnson, currently a leading light in the "Brexit" campaign, won the competition.

"I think it a wonderful thing that a British political leader has shown that Britain will not bow before the putative caliph in Ankara," Murray wrote.

According to Murray, Johnson agreed to create a limerick for the competition during a joint interview with the Spectator and Swiss weekly "Die Weltwoche," in which the Tory called the case against German comedian Jan Böhmermann a "scandal."

"If somebody wants to make a joke about the love that flowers between the Turkish president and a goat, he should be able to do so in any European country, including Turkey," Johnson said.

His statement was shortly followed by the poem, which described Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a "young fellow from Ankara" who "sowed his wild oats / with the help of a goat / but didn't even stop to thankera."

The Spectator announced the "President Erdogan Insulting Poetry Competition" last month with a prize of 1,000 pounds (1,306 euros or $1,465) for the winner.

The contest was an expression of solidarity with German comedian Jan Böhmermann, who could still face criminal prosecution for reciting a poem accusing Erdogan of bestiality and pedophilia on German public television.

President Erdogan has pressed charges in hundreds of cases in Turkey, and several beyond his borders, seeking criminal punishment for those criticizing him. Böhmermann's excessively lewd poem, parts of which are now the subject of an injunction in Germany, was itself a response to the Turkish head of state's lust for litigation on such matters.

The incident sparked a debate on press freedom in Germany and Chancellor Angela Merkel's attitude towards Turkey.

Johnson, a journalist before becoming a politician, is a former editor for The Spectator and maintains close ties to the publication. Some consider him a potential candidate to one day take the lead of the Conservative Party, although he has gone against the government's official stance on the upcoming EU referendum.

http://www.dw.com/en/boris-johnson-wins ... a-19269354

[Anthea]

There was a young fellow from Ankara

Who was a terrific wankerer

Till he sowed his wild oats

With the help of a goat

But he didn’t even stop to thankera

[Anthea]

Boris Johnson wins ‘most offensive Erdogan poem’ contest

Former London Mayor Boris Johnson has won the “President Erdogan Offensive Poetry competition” held by the Spectator. The flamboyant Brexiteer, a former editor of the magazine, is to be awarded £1,000 for a limerick which alleges that Erdogan had sex with a goat.

Journalist and author Douglas Murray, who came up the idea of the contest, said that although the authors of numerous entries in English, German and Turkish that came from all over the world may feel “robbed” by his decision to give the prize to Johnson’s poem, by doing so he is making a “moral point more than a poetic one.”

The competition was launched by Murray as a protest against the actions of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had given a green light to the criminal prosecution of German comedian Jan Böhmermann for his “defamatory poem” about Erdogan. Böhmermann, if found guilty of breaching a rarely used Section 103 of the German penal code that forbids insulting institutions and representatives of foreign countries, could face up to two years in jail.

Merkel’s decision to allow the prosecution to go ahead spurred a storm of negative comments, with critics blaming the German leader for giving in to the Turkish president’s arbitrary demands and allowing him to violate the principles of free speech on German soil in exchange for agreeing to the EU-Turkey refugee deal.

Johnson, the London mayor from 2008-16, who was the Spectator’s editor from 1999 to 2005, was urged to join the competition by Murray himself during an interview he gave to the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche last week. Murray, a regular contributor to the Spectator, is known for his a neo-conservative writing highly critical of Islam. Like Johnson, Murray is an Old Etonian who went to Oxford.

When asked about his attitude to the developments around Böhmermann’s trial, Johnson called it a “scandal,” and described the lawsuit as an encroachment on the freedom of speech in Europe.

“If somebody wants to make a joke about the love that flowers between the Turkish president and a goat, he should be able to do so, in any European country, including Turkey,” Johnson said. The former mayor, whose full name is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, has Turkish blood himself, with his great-grandfather being an ethnic Turk.

“There was a young fellow from Ankara
Who was a terrific wankerer
Till he sowed his wild oats
With the help of a goat
But he didn’t even stop to thankera”

Although, the winner “breached” some rules set by Murray for applicants, for instance, not to use the bawdy rhyme with Ankara that was used in Johnson’s poem, the choice of a £1,000 prize recipient was of a symbolic nature, according to the journalist.

“Finest thing possible that in the UK, in Great Britain, in 2016 you can award a prize to a political leader for insulting a despot in Ankara, while in Germany in 2016, a political leader tries to slam people up in prison,” he said, commenting on his decision to turn a blind eye to flaws in the poem for the sake of delivering a political message.

Anticipating a harsh reaction from Ankara, the journalist advised the Turkish leader to respond in verse rather than through litigation.

The normal response one should make to a poem you don’t like about yourself is to write an equally rude poem back,” he said, adding that Erdogan’s clampdown on the media and zero tolerance to any criticism “has made him a worldwide laughing stock.”

On March 31, Böhmermann recited a satirical piece about Erdogan on a late-night TV comedy show he hosted. The poem implied the Turkish president had engaged in bestiality and was a child abuser. Outraged by the stunt, Turkey filed a formal request for the comedian’s prosecution.

https://www.rt.com/uk/343531-boris-john ... sive-poem/