November 1, 2015

’Get out, impertinent man’

Günal Kurşun

The claim about Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen is that he has established and administers a terrorist organization called the Fethullah Terror Organization (FETÖ).

In order to believe this claim, we need to see a terrorist act, a trial, or at least an indictment, but there have not been any. Yet only the claim has given the government the right to seize control of Koza İpek Holding and its media enterprises for "aiding" this organization. The main goal is to stop media outlets that are critical of the government that have a great effect on people with Islamic sensibilities.

The trustee appointed to the Bugün media group has an organic link to the Justice and Development Party (AKP). The first thing he did was to fire the administrators of the TV station and the columnists of the newspaper. He shouted at the journalists who said their newspaper was their honor, exclaiming, "Get out, impertinent man.” The TV station aired its last free broadcast, and we watched it live. In an authoritarian regime, little dictators emerge after a big dictator. Bugün TV's trustee has a style similar to the AKP party officer who organized the Hürriyet daily attack and stood next to acting Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu a few days ago. We do not need to be astute to understand the message: "He is my man." By the way, we definitely know whose man Davutoğlu is.

After a football match between Trabzonspor and Gaziantepspor in Trabzon this week, the president of Trabzonspor FC, İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu, who is known as a big supporter of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, ordered the doors of the referees' room to be locked and for the referees to be kept in the stadium for more than four hours. Hacıosmanoğlu declared later that he did so because he did not like some of the decisions they made but after a phone call he received from "a great personality he respects very much," he let the referees leave the stadium. He also said that "we will die as men, but not live as women," which received a lot of criticism from women's associations and human rights defenders. Yesterday, he declared that the referees locked themselves in and sent his apologies to "those who felt insulted by his words, as the person who gave birth to him was also a woman.”

A yobbo is a term used for a person, usually a male, who is uncouth, loutish and obnoxious. The AKP government is now presenting “yobboism” as conservatism. Conservatism is an ideology; in fact, quite a sophisticated ideology if you read or listen to its real followers. Being a yobbo is not conservativism, but it is now being promoted by the AKP when they stand behind yobbos. If I were a conservative, I would be disturbed by the AKP's policies because they are harming the conservative ideology as a concept.

As you read this article, I sincerely believe that we will be free of political yobbos after the general elections. I hope the Turkish nation, Turks, Kurds, Alevis, Sunnis, Armenians, Greeks, Arameans (Syriacs), Jews, women, men, conservatives, liberals, leftists and all others who have felt disturbed by this yobboism will show who is "impertinent" at the ballot box. I sincerely believe that we will wake up to a brighter sky. With every option our life will change and momentum is a good thing.

Published on Sunday's Zaman, 1 November 2015, Sunday

Related
Print | Save as PDF