Turkey's
Crackdown on Turkish 'Enemies of Turkey'
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Originally published under the title, "The Real
"Enemies" of Turkey."
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At
a party meeting in Adana last month, Justice and Development Party (AKP)
Deputy Chairman Mustafa Şentop said that opponents of his party were
"enemies of Turkey."
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In a recent speech, the deputy chairman of the party that rules Turkey
claimed that the opponents of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) were
"enemies of Turkey."
This statistic means there are over 40 million Turkish enemies of Turkey
living in Turkey.
In a more recent speech, the AKP's parliamentary group chairman, Mustafa
Elitas, claimed that those Turks who opposed the government's new security
bill, which observers fear would further curb civil liberties, were
"terrorists and traitors."
That claim found a response in the media. If accusing millions of people
of being terrorists and traitors is a right, Hurriyet columnist
Mehmet Yilmaz reasoned,
"Then, Mr. Elitas, I return your words to you. He who defends this
bill is a terrorist and a traitor!"
According to the AKP, more than half
of Turks are enemies of their own country.
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Once again, according to the AKP's official narrative, more than half of
Turks are enemies of their own country, terrorists and traitors.
One of those terrorists/traitors/enemies is the psychiatrist Ahmet
Koyuncu, a renowned psychiatrist with several published articles in
international journals, six academic books, and one novel. Last year, under
a pseudonym, Koyuncu posted
an article about Turkey's then Prime Minister, "Recep Tayyip Erdogan
is Turkey's average. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is Turkey." In his article,
Koyuncu claimed that Erdogan's religiosity is the religiosity of the
average Turk; and that his vindictiveness is the vindictiveness of the
average Turk.
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Prominent
psychiatrist Ahmet Koyuncu was busted for calling Erdogan
"average."
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Koyuncu claims that his article contained a bio-psycho-social analysis
based on scientific grounds. He had written the article shortly after a
mine disaster had killed 301 workers in Soma, western Turkey. Erdogan
visited the town, which a few relatives of the dead miners protested
against. The protest apparently prompted Erdogan to slap one and shout at
him, "Where are you off to, you Israeli sperm!"
Koyuncu is now facing up to two
years in prison for insulting Erdogan on Facebook. Koyuncu says he
never insulted Erdogan, but that the indictment was simply putting his
academic article and science on trial. The first hearing is scheduled for
March 18.
Turkey's systematic insanity can also come in more tragic -- albeit
funny-looking -- flavors, such as a very bad joke.
Last May, Ugur Kurt was attending a funeral service in Istanbul's
Okmeydani district, at a "Cemevi" (an Alevi house of prayer not
officially recognized as a prayer house by the Turkish government). Kurt
was killed by a stray bullet fired by a police officer, in the
neighbourhood to crack down on mourners. Kurt was taken to a hospital but
died shortly after.
Recently, more than half a year after the poor man's death, the local
social security office in Istanbul "wrote a letter to Kurt." The
letter read:
For the payment of your medical treatment
[after being shot], we need to find about if there was a third party
responsible in this incident and if Mr. Kurt could kindly come to our
offices with all the necessary documents in his possession within seven
days...
Sorry, gentlemen, Mr. Kurt cannot come your office within seven days. In
fact, he cannot come to your office ever. Fortunately, one day after a
newspaper report that Kurt was summoned to the government office, the
social security department issued an apology to his
family.
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Thousands
attended Ugur Kurt's funeral last year.
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What about the officer who killed Kurt? According
to prosecutors, the officer, identified only by his initials, S.K., was
only guilty of "reckless negligence by disobeying his supervisors and
firing his weapon" -- a charge that carries a sentence of up to six
years in prison, slightly heavier than what the prosecutors ask for when
they indict a dissident who insults politicians such as Prime Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu or President Erdogan.
Erdogan and his party may win one election after another. But Turkey is
becoming increasingly "unmanageable" due to deep polarization
between the supporters and opponents of an authoritarian party.
Turkey is becoming increasingly
unmanageable due to deep polarization between supporters and opponents of
the AKP.
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Columnist Taha Akyol, a one-time supporter of Erdogan, wrote,
"I have been warning of this since 2011. Unfortunately, we are
galloping at full speed toward ... a point where the society drifts into
clash and becomes unmanageable."
An AKP bigwig felt compelled to make the same warning. Deputy Prime
Minister Bulent Arinc said that although the AKP members win [about] 50% of
the votes at the polls, the rest of society, who did not vote for them,
look on them with hate.
"We receive 50% of the votes," he
said, "but it turns into hate speech from the rest of the 50% ...
When we used to go out on the streets, our supporters would love us very
much and our opponents would respect us. Now I detect looks filled with
hate."
Erdogan is still happy with the love of half the country and the hate of
the other half. His party remains unchallenged, but cannot sustain the
"great Turkish divide" forever. More and more Turks, when they
get newly acquainted with a stranger, have the habit of exchanging
distrustful looks, trying to understand to which Turkey the other one
belongs.
Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a
columnist for the Turkish daily Hürriyet and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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