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Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
dec 13 2014
Erdoðan poised to land blow on former ally Gülen
"Their plans to arrest me were ready," Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdoðan said in his speech on Dec. 12 while hosting the Turkish Union
of Chambers of Commerce (TOBB) in the new presidential palace in
Ankara.
"Dec. 17 [2013] was not a corruption operation," Erdoðan said in the
same speech. "It was a coup attempt. They had even prepared the list
for the Cabinet to take over after us. We have all of the evidence in
our hands now."
If those words had been said seven years ago, one would have assumed
that the target was the military, against which a number of
investigations were under way, such as the "Ergenekon" and "Balyoz"
cases. In those, not only ranking military officers, but academics,
journalists, lawyers and NGO members were put in prisons and received
heavy sentences.
Erdoðan's target today is not the military, but the same police
officers, prosecutors and judges who had spearheaded the probes to
curb the military's role in politics and, in the meantime, caused lot
of collateral damage. In those days, Deniz Baykal, the former chairman
of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), labeled them
the "F-Type structure."
That "F-Type" labeling was in reference to the letter "F" of Fethullah
Gülen, an Islamist scholar living in the U.S. with a lot of
sympathizers in Turkey's police force, judiciary, education and media
sectors, and who had been the closest ally of Erdoðan's Justice and
Development Party (AK Parti) governments since 2002.
Gülen's "Hizmet" (Service) Movement, also running thousands of schools
in Turkey and more than 100 countries (previously with the diplomatic
and political support of AK Parti governments), gave open political
support to Erdoðan. Ahead of the 2010 Constitutional referendum, that
support reached such a peak that Gülen even asked his supporters to
come out of their graves to cast their votes for Erdoðan when they are
dead.
Things started to go sour after Erdoðan received 50 percent of the
votes in the 2011 parliamentary election, winning his third consequent
election, after which he challenged Gülen to return Turkey to live. In
that way, Erdoðan aimed to establish better control over Turkey's
education, judicial and security systems, which was an understandable
aim. By then, the unfair judicial claims around Ergenekon and Balyoz
cases had escalated.
Then, when allegedly Gülenist prosecutors were involved in cases
attempting to interrogate Hakan Fidan, the chief of the National
Intelligence Agency (MÝT), the bridges between Erdoðan and Gülen
rapidly started to crumble. Erdoðan took that move personally, because
Fidan was acting upon his orders to start up a dialogue between the
government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in pursuit
of a political settlement.
The bridges completely broke when Istanbul prosecutors began the
corruption probes of Dec. 17 and 25, 2013 against members of Erdoðan's
government, bureaucracy, and even his family members. Erdoðan
immediately said this was a plot by Gülenists, describing them a
"parallel structure within the state" and vowing to root them out.
For nearly a year he has been threatening the Gülenists. He openly
said that the top reason why he selected Prime Minister Ahmet
Davutoðlu as his successor was Davutoðlu's determination to fight
against the "parallels."
Now the time may have come, as we approach the anniversary of the
biggest corruption probes, (cases that have already been dropped
through the replacement of the prosecutors and judges), in Turkey's
history.
A warning by a fake and allegedly Gülenist Twitter account, "Fuat
Avni," on Dec. 11, saying that a major security operation was about to
start against "Hizmet" to arrest journalists, lawyers, police
officers, bankers and investors close to them, triggered a major
debate in Turkey.
Then came Erdoðan's words that I opened this column with. It is
possible that there will be mass detentions in the next few days. If
so, a major face off within the ruling AK Parti ranks will come to its
final stage, with a considerable split.
Erdoðan also claimed that the "parallel network that is committing
treason" has also been involved in "unsolved murder cases," and this
is the real tragic part of it. Because what he was hinting at was the
murder of Hrant Dink, an Armenian-origin Turkish journalist killed in
January 2007. A young triggerman called Ogün Samast was tried and
found guilty for the killing, but the case is still not closed.
During the Ergenekon and Balyoz trials, prosecutors had tried to link
Dink's murder with the military. Now, the suspicions are directed
toward the Gülenists.
December/13/2014
dec 13 2014
Erdoðan poised to land blow on former ally Gülen
"Their plans to arrest me were ready," Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdoðan said in his speech on Dec. 12 while hosting the Turkish Union
of Chambers of Commerce (TOBB) in the new presidential palace in
Ankara.
"Dec. 17 [2013] was not a corruption operation," Erdoðan said in the
same speech. "It was a coup attempt. They had even prepared the list
for the Cabinet to take over after us. We have all of the evidence in
our hands now."
If those words had been said seven years ago, one would have assumed
that the target was the military, against which a number of
investigations were under way, such as the "Ergenekon" and "Balyoz"
cases. In those, not only ranking military officers, but academics,
journalists, lawyers and NGO members were put in prisons and received
heavy sentences.
Erdoðan's target today is not the military, but the same police
officers, prosecutors and judges who had spearheaded the probes to
curb the military's role in politics and, in the meantime, caused lot
of collateral damage. In those days, Deniz Baykal, the former chairman
of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), labeled them
the "F-Type structure."
That "F-Type" labeling was in reference to the letter "F" of Fethullah
Gülen, an Islamist scholar living in the U.S. with a lot of
sympathizers in Turkey's police force, judiciary, education and media
sectors, and who had been the closest ally of Erdoðan's Justice and
Development Party (AK Parti) governments since 2002.
Gülen's "Hizmet" (Service) Movement, also running thousands of schools
in Turkey and more than 100 countries (previously with the diplomatic
and political support of AK Parti governments), gave open political
support to Erdoðan. Ahead of the 2010 Constitutional referendum, that
support reached such a peak that Gülen even asked his supporters to
come out of their graves to cast their votes for Erdoðan when they are
dead.
Things started to go sour after Erdoðan received 50 percent of the
votes in the 2011 parliamentary election, winning his third consequent
election, after which he challenged Gülen to return Turkey to live. In
that way, Erdoðan aimed to establish better control over Turkey's
education, judicial and security systems, which was an understandable
aim. By then, the unfair judicial claims around Ergenekon and Balyoz
cases had escalated.
Then, when allegedly Gülenist prosecutors were involved in cases
attempting to interrogate Hakan Fidan, the chief of the National
Intelligence Agency (MÝT), the bridges between Erdoðan and Gülen
rapidly started to crumble. Erdoðan took that move personally, because
Fidan was acting upon his orders to start up a dialogue between the
government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in pursuit
of a political settlement.
The bridges completely broke when Istanbul prosecutors began the
corruption probes of Dec. 17 and 25, 2013 against members of Erdoðan's
government, bureaucracy, and even his family members. Erdoðan
immediately said this was a plot by Gülenists, describing them a
"parallel structure within the state" and vowing to root them out.
For nearly a year he has been threatening the Gülenists. He openly
said that the top reason why he selected Prime Minister Ahmet
Davutoðlu as his successor was Davutoðlu's determination to fight
against the "parallels."
Now the time may have come, as we approach the anniversary of the
biggest corruption probes, (cases that have already been dropped
through the replacement of the prosecutors and judges), in Turkey's
history.
A warning by a fake and allegedly Gülenist Twitter account, "Fuat
Avni," on Dec. 11, saying that a major security operation was about to
start against "Hizmet" to arrest journalists, lawyers, police
officers, bankers and investors close to them, triggered a major
debate in Turkey.
Then came Erdoðan's words that I opened this column with. It is
possible that there will be mass detentions in the next few days. If
so, a major face off within the ruling AK Parti ranks will come to its
final stage, with a considerable split.
Erdoðan also claimed that the "parallel network that is committing
treason" has also been involved in "unsolved murder cases," and this
is the real tragic part of it. Because what he was hinting at was the
murder of Hrant Dink, an Armenian-origin Turkish journalist killed in
January 2007. A young triggerman called Ogün Samast was tried and
found guilty for the killing, but the case is still not closed.
During the Ergenekon and Balyoz trials, prosecutors had tried to link
Dink's murder with the military. Now, the suspicions are directed
toward the Gülenists.
December/13/2014