The holidays — Ramazan Bayrami, or Eid al-Fidtr — marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the weekend that followed allowed Turkey a relatively long respite after the tensions of recent times, nourished every day by a new round of polemics. For about a week, Turkey was freed of this politically hot and tense environment.

True, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had spoken on the first day of the holidays, and at one point blasted the Nobel Committee for awarding the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize to Mohamed ElBaradei. Perhaps, however, it is because Turks are so used to their prime minister lambasting someone or another on any given day that they have learned to largely ignore his rants. Turks were also otherwise busy trying to get themselves to resorts during the hot summer days capping Ramadan. In the Greek islands near the Turkish Aegean coast, the number of holidaying Turks was equal to the Greeks enjoying their summer.

Erdogan’s out-of-the-blue reference to the Nobel Committee, and scolding of the Norwegians, was in a part of his speech about Egypt. It was disjointed, rambling. While advising Turks to have three children, so they can contribute to the fatherland, he strayed onto the Egyptian coup. While explaining his rejection of the coup, Erdogan suddenly appeared to remember that ElBaradei was now Egypt's provisional deputy president and then drifted to ElBaradei receiving the Nobel. Thus, the Nobel Committee came in for its share of Erdogan's anger.

In reprimanding the Nobel Committee, he uttered, “Eyy, Nobel how could you award a peace prize to a man who was to become the deputy president of a military coup eight years later?” He then chided Norwegians for lacking “vision.” His pronounciation of “Eyy, Nobel,” as if he were addressing a person instead of the Nobel Committee, received a few satirical comments.