Intelligent enemy is better than a stupid friend

A Turkish proverb say, it's better having an intelligent enemy than a stupid friend.

That partly fits with the headline of the Swiss newspaper Blick, which was published on March 13 with a headline in Turkish. Together with a photo of Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan and his four-finger "Rabia" salute, the headline asked Turkish citizens to say "no" to "dictatorship in Turkey" by voting "no" in the April 16 referendum for a constitutional shift.

The reason why it doesn't exactly fit with the proverb is that, it is not difficult to call the move stupid, but it is very difficult to call it friendly.

If Blick's editors thought that there was one person who would change their mind from "yes" to "no" by reading that headline and open letter, they are not only day-dreaming but also do not have a clue about Turkish politics or, indeed, politics anywhere else as well. Perhaps there will even be some naysayers who change their minds in reaction to this insolent level of orientalism, not the other way around.

An MP from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) expressed gratitude to Germany and the Netherlands on TV the other night because he estimated the recent tension had added two more percentages to the "yes" votes.

But would there be a single Swiss citizen who would change their mind on a Swiss referendum after reading a Turkish paper's provocative and biased headline in their own language? 

It was neither smart nor friendly, because it also contributed to the ongoing tension between Turkey and the Netherlands which has spilled over to those parts of Europe where Turkish citizens live. It has also contributed to the hate speech in Europe and in Turkey.

And this headline is not an isolated case in...