Shots were fired in front of the Italian consulate in Istanbul by a Turkish Islamist. Unfortunately, the incident is becoming the rule rather than the exception in Turkey. Following the Danish cartoon crisis, a Turkish Islamist murdered an Italian priest. Another Turkish Islamist murdered a Supreme Court justice in protest of a ruling against the veil. The Prime Minister embraced Hamas’ most unrepentant hardliner whom even the French wouldn’t go near and then met one-on-one with Fatih al-Hassanein, a Sudanese financier of al-Qaeda (Turkish officials present in the October 2 White House meeting say this was a topic of conversation with President Bush). The AKP refuses to explain billions in illegal subsidies. Incitement in AKP circles is out-of-control. In my own case, long before I had ever written about Turkey, a newspaper close to Prime Minister Erdogan’s party labeled me “an enemy of Islam.” Unfortunately, our public diplomacy is failing. MEMRI had just issued a report showing how many Turks perceive the US Ambassador, Ross Wilson, to support the Islamists. It’s been almost a year since Wilson arrived in Ankara. Diplomacy is not about doing the ostrich-head-burying routine.