Damn this sort of politics!

Ekrem Dumanlı

The recent taped phone calls broadcast over the Internet last week confirmed the grave situation in relations between the media and politics. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a phone call to the justice minister asking him to influence a court so that the judges hand down a verdict against Aydın Doğan, owner of the Doğan Group. He then expressed his unhappiness with the minister after Doğan was acquitted [despite his all efforts to influence the court]. In response, the minister resorted to a horrible excuse to imply that he was unable to do anything and said, “That judge is an Alevi.” This is serious.

There is something even graver: The prime minister has called for interference with the higher judiciary as well. Is it normal in a democratic country that the prime minister puts pressure on a media group? Of course not. But you cannot tell this to the politicians. And Prime Minister Erdoğan admitted to the phone conversation; however, he defended himself as follows: “What else could be more natural than this?” By this confession, another question was actually clearly answered. When the executives of the group held meetings to demand their rights, they were told that the Hizmet movement was responsible for the increased pressure on them. This huge lie suggesting that extensions of the Hizmet movement within the judiciary were responsible for the grave violations of the Doğan Group's rights was therefore corrected by the prime minister's confession.

Who knows what else will be exposed? By these exposures, maybe it will become clear that this imagined “structure” is nothing but a method of masking what they have done in the name of politics. The prime minister did not argue that this leaked conversation was fabricated. He did not even care that this call he admits was a direct interference with the judiciary. What does he care about? Arguably, the votes he will receive, as if there is nothing else as a measurement or criterion. For this reason, in a TV show -- I cannot call it a program -- he argued that the reference to Alevi was inserted into the conversation, suggesting that they had not conducted such a conversation. However, in another show broadcast two hours previously, former Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin admitted that he made mention of the Alevi orientation of the judge they were referring to. The prime minister argued that Ergin is their candidate in Hatay for the mayoral elections and this reference was inserted into the conversation to influence the Alevi voters in this city. However, a few hours later, Ergin admitted he made this reference but meant nothing bad by this, also adding that he would apologize to the Alevi people if they feel offended.

This incident proves something: In order to survive politically, Prime Minister Erdoğan reproduces things and events in his mind, distorts the facts and wants everybody else to believe his version of the whole story. Since the Gezi Park protests, he has been trying to convince people to believe his fabrications and imaginings. Of course, when he does this, he also alienates and polarizes people.

Another taped conversation of the prime minister also confirmed the immense pressure placed upon another media group. The owner of Demirören group talks to the prime minister by phone. The Milliyet daily had just reported the minutes of İmralı in its headlines. The talks between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan and the delegation sent to Imralı Island were made public. The prime minister makes pretty harsh statements against the owner of the Milliyet daily over the phone; he even directs serious insults. He goes so far in his insults that Erdoğan Demirören, 76, bursts into tears and the phone call ends amid sobbing. In what democratic country does a prime minister interfere with the media? I suppose that those who are familiar with the whole issue would say: “Well, this is nothing; many serious things are taking place in this country; some columnists are called and berated for what they write; and in some cases, media bosses are instructed to fire the undesired columnists.” There are also some volunteers who are ready to take action upon direct instruction from the prime minister. History will write about them in detail in the future. Going back to our discussion, the prime minister must have been so furious that he raised a public discussion on this matter and damned this type of journalism. What happened next? The paper first fired Hasan Cemal and other journalists. And subsequently, the editor-in-chief of the paper, Derya Sazak, had to resign from this position under pressure.

Sazak has recently published his newest book titled “Batsın Böyle Gazetecilik!” (Damn this Type of Journalism). This is true. How is it possible to conduct journalism in an environment in which the media has been made a plaything in the hands of the political administration? This is just the end, given that there are voluntary slaves of these pressures by the government. The pool media -- which consists of pro-government media outlets that repeat the same things -- assumes that they will ensure the survival of the political rule by fabricated lies; by doing this, they actually destroy their reputation and the image of their owners. And nobody acts reasonably and recalls that this country is moving quickly towards becoming a Third World state. And in such an environment, the political administration remains arrogant and builds its politics upon lies.

If journalism, which is supposed to be based on the honor of thoughts and ideas, remains so hesitant in respect to fundamental rights and freedoms, it is really time to damn this type of journalism. But how about politics amid lies and pillaging? How about politics that extends serious insults to various segments of society and commits hate crimes on a daily basis? Should not we also damn this type of politics as well, if political actors rely on such poisonous language and where illegality is justified?

New Feb 28 is more brutal

The current brutality is not more bearable than the persecution in the Feb. 28 process that was staged by prosecutors supported by the media. Consider the allegations back then and the arguments now; you'll see that the actors of the new Feb. 28 are more brutal. Take a few examples:

Today, Prime Minister Erdoğan makes remarks and raises allegations against Fethullah Gülen in his political rallies that are almost identical to those previously made by prosecutor Nuh Mete Yüksel during the Feb. 28 process. Yüksel constructed an image of an organized crime entity in his mind and identified Gülen as its leader. The approach, which defined Gülen as a global imam of this organization, further identified the “imam” for every sector [of the state].

Now the prime minister raises the same allegation; he argues that Gülen is the imam of the universe. This means that there is almost no difference [from the arguments put forward during the Feb. 28 coup era]. I really wonder who advises the prime minister on these legally refuted claims. I should note that these allegations were reviewed by the relevant courts eight years ago, and Gülen was acquitted of all charges by a unanimous decision of the panel of judges; this decision was further upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals.

Given that these old dossiers are now being discussed again, either the prime minister is complying with a National Security Council (MGK) decision he undersigned in 2004 to eliminate the Hizmet movement, or he is trying to use these old materials to make up allegations and imaginary crimes. Former Feb. 28 figures wanted to destroy the Hizmet movement by an MGK decision, and the new Feb. 28 figures are doing the same; they are just bragging about doing so rather than feeling guilty. The former did not consider shutting down the prep schools, but they put pressure on education institutions via inspections. The new Feb. 28 figures shut down prep schools. Unfortunately, they praise this shameful decision in [ruling party] rallies. Former Feb. 28 figures made up an imaginary foe that they referred to as Islamic capital; they labeled conservative companies and urged the people not to transact business with them. The new Feb. 28 figures attempted to dissolve a bank, asked the people not to send their children to the Hizmet movement's schools and tried to discredit certain papers. Do I need to add anything else to make my point? “Islamist” Feb. 28 figures seem to be more aggressive and merciless than the “secularist” Feb. 28 actors. The actors of Feb. 28, 1997 thought that the order they created would last thousands of years; the present-day Feb. 28 figures believe that this will last forever. This means that they have not learned their lesson. However, brutality and repression will not become permanent, particularly in these lands.

Published on Sunday's Zaman, 09 March 2014, Sunday