Liviu Turcu’s Reason

The Jurnalul National issue on the 9th of November 2006 hosted a two-page text signed by Liviu Turcu entitled "Liviu Turcu Answers to Detractors". The author is a fine analyst of the Romanian reality, a distinguished intellectual. Yesterday’s article, as compared to the previous ones written by Liviu Turcu, is a great disappointment. The Americanized citizen quickly became Romanian. Because this is the only explanation I can think about when it comes to the reaction in the press regarding his latest statements.

Liviu Turcu says all the criticisms and doubts of the commentators in the press are based on a "great public lynching made by a part of the media controlled by a powerful political and financial interest group".

Saying all the people that seemed skeptical about the truth in his statements are influenced by a group of interests looks like pure Romanian after-the-Revolution behavior. For example, I thought the latest statements of the distinguished collaborator of Jurnalul National have been a result of his reason, of his logics, which I have studied in the first year at philosophy in the same way Liviu Turcu did.

On Friday, the 27th of October 2006, Jurnalul National prints a text signed by Liviu Turcu in which Varujan Vosganian was accused of having collaborated to the Security. However, the statement didn’t come with any actual proof. I, together with other fellow journalists, thought we were witnessing a well-directed hit. Liviu Turcu knew all about the position of Varujan Vosganian in the past, and he also had the proofs for that and he was ready to make the public. Like in all the good investigation movies, after Varujan Vosgnian’s denial about his past, Liviu Turcu was supposed to show the proofs.

On Friday, the 27th of October 2006, Varujan Vosganian denies the accusations publicly. Calin Popescu Tariceanu supports him. In their turn, SIE (the External Information Service) and CNSAS (the National Council for the Study of the National Archives) say they do not have the file mentioned by Liviu Turcu. We started to wait for the reply from Liviu Turcu. One week silently passed.

On Monday, the 6th of November 2006, Liviu Turcu appears on the first page of the newspaper again. The article called "Turcu’s List" contains a list of 11 important politicians supposed to have collaborated to the Security in the past.

No words about Varujan Vosganian. Like in the case of the liberal politician, the article doesn’t contain any actual proofs. The article only refers to certain archives that could contain the required proofs.

On Wednesday, the 7th of November 2006, Liviu Turcu made other statements during the Marius Tuca Show on Antena 1. The people present on his list had denied their collaboration with the Security. Liviu Turcu applied the same strategy and didn’t bring any proof to support his accusations. The second day, the journalists and the politicians show their skepticism about the accusations of Liviu Turcu. On Thursday, the 8th of November 2006, the author writes another article regarding the Security files.

Instead of providing proofs for at least one person he had accused, he tells us about reasoning: the collaboration system reached incredible scales of up to 100%, in the cases of the "people that, one way or the other, met foreign citizens or used to travel abroad". All the 11 people mentioned had met foreign citizens or had traveled abroad. So, all of them have collaborated with the Security. This is not reasoning, this is sophism. The fact that these people have traveled abroad doesn’t necessarily mean they have collaborated with the Security.

This is something similar to the following example: Women give birth to children. X is a woman. The fact that women can give birth to children doesn’t necessarily mean that a certain woman already gave birth to a child. Maybe she didn’t want to or maybe she is still a virgin. In order to be able to say in Jurnalul National that X had a child, we have to at least publish the picture of the baby. We should probably publish a copy of his birth certificate too.