February 22, 2015

AKP’s situation is so bad that it needs medical treatment

Emre Uslu

The pro-government media outlets continue to serve up nonsensical headlines.

And their latest headline is perfectly ridiculous. They say that I will arrange the assassination of Sümeyye Erdoğan, the daughter of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Should I laugh at it? Should I get angry with it? Should I feel pity? I don't know.

I think the situation is worse for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). First of all, it has failed to change the agenda. Second, it has been unable to find any evidence for the charges of terrorism they have been raising about the Gülen movement for about a year. Moreover, they have been considerably isolated in the international arena. It is said that Erdoğan was harshly chided by the US for calling 80 representatives from the US Congress "deputies for hire" during his visit to Mexico. The latest example was Interior Minister Efkan Ala's planned visit to the US. It is said that when the US authorities didn't give him an appointment, he at first shortened his visit to one day and then he completely canceled it.

In addition to these problems, it is also rumored that former National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Undersecretary Hakan Fidan resigned from office in spite of Erdoğan's disapproval and that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is not on good terms with Erdoğan and said to his close circle, "Erdoğan has crossed me out." Apparently, things are not easy for the AKP, both at home and abroad. It is getting increasingly isolated. As it gets isolated, it is growing embittered. As it gets embittered, its media outlets manufacture ridiculous claims. They are desperate. Consider a party that has been in power for 12 years. It is worried about the nearing election. It is cornered by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and it cannot win the war against the Gülen community. It is getting stuck in the quicksand as it tries to get out of it desperately.

These latest headlines are signs of this helplessness. The AKP is so desperate that they cannot find any evidential document to use even though it controls the entire state apparatus, but the newspapers run headlines with fake disclosures. They blunder grossly and end up in foolishness. They couldn't write down the date properly. Even their supporter, Fidel Okan, admits that the document in question is so carelessly prepared that only a primary school student could have prepared it. They are so desperate.

Most recently, they came up with the nonsense of the assassination of Sümeyye Erdoğan. Now that their "Fuat Avni" conspiracy has failed, they claim that I sent a direct message to Umut Oran from my Twitter account. I have been using Twitter since 2009 and I don't remember that I've ever followed Oran at any time. I have never met, talked to or communicated with Oran in my life. I don't even think that I have friends any common with Oran. I never refer to Oran in my daily conversations. Oran is a stranger to me. Now, they allege that I have conspired with Oran to arrange an assassination. O God, please save our minds...

Why do the pro-government media outlets hate me so much that they try to implicate my name in these conspiracies? I do not know exactly why they are doing it. But I have observations and analysis. I think there are several reasons for targeting me.

1. Although all media members are afraid of MİT, I recklessly write about MİT. I have been criticizing MİT since the time when 34 civilians were mistaken for terrorists and killed by military airstrikes in Şırnak's Uludere district due to false intelligence. In this context, I have exerted great efforts to bring Hakan Fidan's failure to the agenda as well as his turning MİT into a partisan intelligence organization. I think they are disturbed by this fact.

2. I was the first to write about the AKP's operations to undermine the Gülen community and hound out its followers even when there was no problem between the AKP and the Gülen community and the Gülen community was lending support to the AKP. For instance, three years ago, in February 2012, I wrote that the Gülen community would be purged and the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) members would be released. At that time, Gülen community members were very angry with me. And Zaman Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı wrote articles against me. The plan was to split the Gülen community and hound out the community members using a professor they controlled. At that time, I used the following analogy: "Erdoğan seeks to build a slum house on the land that officially belongs to Gülen."

After a row broke out with the Gülen community, the AKP's plan was disclosed. And this aroused the interest of Gülen community members in the articles I have written since 2011. It was even reported that my articles were read out during their gatherings. These articles triggered an awakening in Gülen's followers and disrupted the AKP's plan. I think they are very angry with me for this reason as well.

I was virtually the only one who announced that the settlement process was nothing but distraction and deception. I predicted that thanks to this process, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) would emerge stronger and start to control the entire region. This made the AKP and AKP-affiliated intellectuals angry. When they claimed that the PKK was about to withdraw, I wrote that no such thing would happen. Initially, people were unable to believe in me, but now the number of those who acknowledge that I was right is increasing. Even spin doctors who called me a warlord couldn't say anything. I think they are angry for that matter as well. I disrupted their perception management mechanisms...

4. It is very likely that the articles I wrote in January 2014 and March 2014 angered the ruling party and paved the way for the pro-government outlets' "assassination" headlines. In those articles I touched on "fake assassinations," a commonly employed method in Middle Eastern dictatorships, and argued that in the run-up to the election, Erdoğan might be planning to use the same method. I had seen certain signs of this tendency. You can read my article titled "How will the fake assassination attempt be conducted?” here. In the article, which I wrote in March 2014, I suggested that with the fake assassinations, Erdoğan will try to score cheap political points by portraying himself as a victim and rebrand the Gülen community an armed terrorist organization. The following passage is taken from the article: "It wouldn't be a surprise for Erdoğan to use such fake assassinations and attacks as a pretext for a mass crackdown on the Hizmet movement, particularly given the fact that the judiciary has recently been subordinated to the ruling party. In such a mass operation against the Hizmet movement, the prosecutors and judges, hand-picked by the justice minister thanks to the recent amendment to the law on the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) would be very useful."

As you can see, I wrote one year ago what they would do today. The judiciary has been subordinated to the ruling party and is being used as a tool in the operations against the Gülen community. In the final analysis, I wrote one year ago what they would do today. Do you now understand why I have been being lynched by slander for the last five days? I have been spoiling their power games. I know all the reasons they have for being mad with me...

Published on Today's Zaman, 20 February 2015, Friday

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