2014: Towards an “Empire of Fear”

Adem Yavuz Arslan

As another year comes to a close it is customary to sum up the ending one and making projections for the coming.

Sadly, 2014 has been a lost year. The corruption files did away with the AKP’s 12 years in one stroke.

The December 17 and 25 graft probes and their aftermath was the most important agenda of 2014.

The year started with a blacklist of two thousand people.

It turned out the practice, which the AKP had condemned as “despicable”, was in full swing. Fethullah Gülen’s illegally wiretapped phone calls were initially broadcasted by the Aktrolls, and then by the pool media.

That was followed by the disclosure that MİT was instructed to “monitor all religious communities”.

The heroic police of the Gezi Park protests was declared “traitor” on December 17 and 25, and over 20 thousand law enforcement officers were either relegated of defrocked.

In the meantime, the allegedly corrupt four ex-ministers’ case summaries shuttled between Ankara and Istanbul for months.

In the end, the documents arrived at the Parliament, but they were practically trimmed to nothing.

Both the death of 15 year-old Berkin Elvan and Erdoğan’s accusations of him were gravely unfortunate.

The government started a witch hunt against the Gülen Community.

Schools and dormitories were raided. Elementary school students were questioned. The witch hunt spread as far as the Police Department, the judiciary, the bureaucracy and even the business world.

Erdoğan took the hunt to Brussels first and then to Washington and Africa. The world was discussing ISIL at the United Nations while Erdoğan was complaining about Gülen.

To cover up the corruption and unlawful acts they implemented one ban after the other. At the Bursa meeting Erdoğan said he would “eradicate” Twitter and the “independent courts” banned the website.

Soma witnessed one of the biggest mining disasters in history.

301 miners lost their lives. The people in charge again got away with it. A citizen got kicked by Erdoğan’s adviser Yusuf Yerkel. The photo documenting the incident was covered by the world media.

Our Mosul Consulate was raided.

49 hostages were kept by ISIL for 101 days. The allegation that the hostages were traded with “around 180 ISIL members” is still debated.

In an effort to escape the plight of corruption the government made legal arrangements to release the defendants of cases like Ergenekon, Balyoz and KCK, which it had been praising for years and then suddenly claimed was a “conspiracy”.

Perinçek and Erdoğan set up a coalition.

While Rıza Zarrab and his men were set free, tens of police officers who took part in the corruption, KCK, Balyoz and Ergenekon cases were detained on July 23. A police lost his baby first, and then his own life.

Unlawful practices at the courts –epitomized by the phrase, “Run, İsmail, Run”– hit the fan.

At the local elections cats messed with power distribution units and in many cities overshadowed the election results.

Erdoğan was elected President. Instead of the Çankaya Köşk he started using the new presidential building that cost TL 1.4 billion. The palace with over a thousand rooms was received as a joke by the world media.

Practices dwarfing February 28

It turned out that Turkey sold Israel 1.584 tons of jet fuel on the eve of the Gaza attacks. Religious communities were declared “internal enemies” at the MGK (National Security Council) meeting.

The judiciary package paved the way for the detention of all dissidents and the appropriation of their assets. Turkey became an “Empire of Fear” with the arrangements concerning MİT, internal security, reasonable suspicion and the criminal courts of peace.

The charity, Kimse Yok Mu was deprived of the right to collect donations. The Turkish Olympiad was withheld.

Every day the government-controlled media made up innumerable stories on the Community and esteemed Gülen.

And on December 14 an unfounded operation took place that resulted in the detention of Zaman Daily’s editor-in-chief Ekrem Dumanlı, Samanyolu Media Group Chairman Hidayet Karaca and many other TV employees and law enforcement officers.

Karaca, who was not given water so he could take his pills, was arrested on grounds of the script of a TV series.

Dumanlı may be detained again.

As the media responded vigorously all around the world, Erdoğan went on air and announced, “Other journalists too may be detained”.

As for Fethullah Gülen, it was stated that a Red Notice would be issued and he would be charged for “leadership of a terrorist organization”.

Another remarkable event of the year was of course the Twitter phenomena Fuat Avni.

Surely there were many more memorable headlines in 2014. Still, the above ones are enough for a solid shock.

Looking at the present, it is easy to see that 2015 will be no different.

Moreover, the new year will bring even bigger risks, since Erdoğan’s destructive and offending manner has marginalized each and every community.

The tension may lead to unwanted consequences.

Last but not least, I want to give an advice to the AKP. You have done away with the country’s prestige along with coffers of money and tens of evidences. While you’re on it, why don’t you make 2014 disappear altogether?

Because 2014 is etched in history as a shameful testimonial not to be erased until the end of time.

Published on BGNNews, 29 December 2014, Monday