Erdoğan's hate speech, slanders and insults graver every day

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who claims that the Hizmet movement is responsible for the Dec. 17 corruption probe, is ratcheting up his hateful rhetoric practically every day, attacking both Fethullah Gülen and the Hizmet movement alike.

Erdoğan raises new arguments against the movement in political rallies and speaks exclusively with newspapers and in group meetings of his party, and refers to a movement he had formerly praised as a parallel state, assassins, an illegal organization and a virus. He does not deny recorded phone conversations implicating corruption, bribery, tender-rigging and media interference, and stresses that they have adopted new bills effecting changes to the judiciary, bureaucracy, intelligence agency and Internet to combat the so-called parallel structure.

Caves, evil groups

Erdoğan made harsh and strong statements against the Hizmet movement when it became evident that his government wanted to shut down the prep schools. However, his first insulting remarks were made in his speech in the Çarşamba neighborhood of Samsun on Dec. 21. In this speech, he made grave insults, saying that they, the ruling party, would expose the so-called parallel states and that they would search everything, including their “caves.”

In another speech right after the one in Samsun, Erdoğan accused the movement of treason. He said: “Evil groups will not cause chaos in my beautiful country. No matter what organization they use, they will not be able to achieve their goals. No matter what agent or traitor they use, this nation will be able to effectively respond to these groups and circles. This is not the old Turkey anymore. Turkey is not a country that shady circles and their contractors around the world will be able to manipulate or govern.” Arguing that the operation on Dec. 17 was an external conspiracy, Erdoğan said on Dec. 27 that they would eliminate accomplices to this conspiracy. In the same speech, he referred to the so-called parallel structure for the first time.

Later speaking in Trabzon, Erdoğan compared the Hizmet movement to a gang, a mafia. Erdoğan said: “Just how we dealt with the mafia, we will address this danger. And we will destroy this structure.” Fethullah Gülen, who generally avoids responding to Erdoğan's insults and offensive remarks, said in a recorded conversation that remarks by those who refer to Muslims as a gang, part of an illegal network or as bandits are using discursive strategies and that such remarks would not correct anything.

Assassins, viruses

In his speech on Dec. 26, Erdoğan defined the huge and comprehensive corruption and bribery probe as an operation conducted by the Hizmet movement, which he referred to as an illegal structure and a gang. Erdoğan went even further and compared the members of the Hizmet movement to a group called the Assassins, one of the bloodiest organizations in history, in his speech at a party group meeting on Jan. 14. In that speech, Erdoğan said: “No matter who is behind this, the reality is as follows: If you show mercy, you will become pathetic and miserable. On our trip to Malaysia, I told the members of the media who accompanied me that there was a virus in the body [of the government]. It has secretly expanded its sphere of influence and then took action to take the entire body hostage. However, this body is not weak, so it will not surrender to these viruses.” Erdoğan, who referred to the Assassins in the same speech, further elaborated: “We have examined history, and we have seen this. We have observed that the great Seljuk state was taken hostage by members of this horrible secret organization, and that they cooperated with the enemy; we saw this centuries ago. The state of Turkey will not bow to these secret viruses.”

Erdoğan complained about conversations that he argued were recorded illegally -- though the opposition says they were legally authorized by the court in corruption probe -- but then he used illegally recorded tapes of Fethullah Gülen's conversations in his political rallies. In a party meeting on Jan. 24, he made extensive remarks about pineapples which were allegedly referred to in the voice recordings: “Dear TÜSİAD [Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's Association], why are you not bothered by this pineapple thing? Why are you not bothered by the parallel state? You are not [bothered] because things are going well for some of you. Pineapples come and go. You should understand that this is not regular pineapple; it is a code name.

Fake prophet, traitors

Erdoğan made his gravest insult when he addressed religious clerics while delivering a speech at a ceremony organized by the Directorate of Religious Affairs on Jan. 25, saying: “This civilization has rejected fake prophets and shallow scholars and thrown them onto the garbage pile of history. This civilization will do the same again. It will reject those who view scholarly inquiry as magic. This civilization has never acknowledged those who use scholarly inquiry to gain power and influential networks.”

In his party's group meeting on Feb. 11, Erdoğan relied on a different approach, arguing that they have given everything the Hizmet movement has asked for.

In an Ankara Chamber of Commerce event on Feb. 21, Erdoğan brought his harsh rhetoric to an unprecedented level, calling members of the Hizmet movement blood-sucking vampires. His inflammatory remarks are bound to create further polarization and his endless use of hate speech doesn't help preserve social cohesion and peace.

Erdoğan further insulted the movement in his speech on Feb. 22 in Sivas, urging his followers not to send their kids to the schools and institutions run by the Hizmet movement, and not to buy its newspapers. As part of the campaign initiated to destroy and annihilate the Hizmet movement, Erdoğan also attempted to force Bank Asya into bankruptcy and asked businessmen holding accounts with the bank to close their accounts. Turkish Airlines (THY) withdrew its deposits from Bank Asya in response to Erdoğan's request.

Erdoğan, who previously insulted Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli for not having a son, relied on the same approach in his rally in Balıkesir, where he said Fethullah Gülen was attacking Turkey because he had no children; therefore, according to Erdoğan, Gülen has nothing to worry about. In a speech in Burdur, Erdoğan said: “You, Gülen, if you believe that you did nothing wrong, then return to your home. Do not get involved in illegal activities that would endanger our national security.” In the same speech, he argued that the so-called parallel structure emerged to disrupt Turkey's national unity.

Erdoğan has claimed that the voice recordings of his son are fabricated and has argued that the Hizmet movement is behind it. In his speech in Denizli, Erdoğan argued that Gülen is responsible for leaks and for the conspiracy against him, saying: “If you want a fight, then do it by creating a party. You, master, who ran away from Turkey, should return and be [involved in] politics. I am telling you to take your children out of their schools and institutions. A public school education is [good] enough. These people have exploited you. So withdraw your children.” At a rally on Saturday, Erdoğan used the phrase "blood-sucker" to describe Hizmet members in his latest verbal assault against the movement.

In his rally in Balıkesir, Erdoğan said: “We will teach a great lesson to traitors in Turkey and external circles alike. You will respond to them via the ballot box.” In another speech in early March, Erdoğan defined the movement as a secret organization trying to infiltrate various segments of the state and added that they would hold the organization accountable for what they had done.

Erdoğan signaled that they were conducting an operation against the Hizmet movement in a rally in Kırklareli and said in a press release that the parallel structure has been organizing itself within state institutions since the 1980s. He said: “We sincerely believed them. If we had realized their secret plans, we would have taken measures a decade ago. Things would have been pretty different.”

Erdoğan defines the fight against the Hizmet movement as a new kind of war of liberation.

Published on Today's Zaman, 03 March 2014, Monday