OPINION burak-bekdil
We've been unmasked!
HDN | 6/15/2010 12:00:00 AM | BURAK BEKDİL
In Mr. Erdoğan's mental calculus, anyone who deviates by an inch from his line of Israel-bashing is part of a wicked, clandestine and global Zionist network.
Since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has unmasked all of us, there is no need to hide the connections we had successfully hidden to this day. We may have been revealed, but that should not stop us from writing more articles to please our crypto-boss, the State of Israel.
For my part, I feel obliged to provide the service for which I have been paid in advance. I may have been sold to the Israeli agents but at least I am honest enough to fulfill my commitments.
According to Mr. Erdoğan, all journalists who did not shout and yell and curse the Jewish state as he and his jihadist fellows did in the aftermath of the flotilla raid are “sub-contractors of the Israeli-controlled international media.” Sadly I fall into that category.
Since no one in the Turkish press praised Israel for killing activists aboard the Mavi Marmara, in Mr. Erdoğan’s mental calculus, anyone who deviates by an inch from his line of Israel-bashing is apparently part of a wicked, clandestine and global Zionist network. You may have condemned the raid. Not enough. You should have done as his “yellow journalists” did: Curse Israel more loudly and preferably in Mr. Erdoğan’s selection of wording, augmented typically with tags such as “barbaric,” “piracy” and “state terror.”
When you are, like me, caught red-handed, especially by a powerful prime minister such as Mr. Erdoğan you naturally face dangerous consequences. Unless, however, you have equally powerful conspirators in your clandestine network... and I don’t mean the Israelis.
Luckily, one man within our network happens to be as powerful as the prime minister. His name is Fethullah Gülen. I have never met him. I did not know he was part of the people “sub-contracted to the Israeli-controlled international media” grouping. But I easily spotted him after Mr. Erdoğan’s remarks.
When the Turkish journalists now being accused by the prime minister of “having been sub-contracted” condemned the flotilla raid in a uniform chorus, Mr. Gülen spoke to an American newspaper that is most probably one of the “Israeli-backed” international media outlets Mr. Erdoğan mentioned, and said that “the [flotilla] organizers’ failure to seek accord with Israel is a sign of defying authority” and that “this will not lead to fruitful matters.”
It was bizarre that Mr. Gülen’s words criticizing the aid organizers for the incident faced a blackout even in his own media outlets. Similarly, another leading Islamist “sheik,” Cubbeli Ahmet Hoca, accused Mr. Gülen of “having lost his conscience.”
The truth is that Mr. Erdoğan’s conspiracy theories regarding the secret Israeli involvement in some Turkish news coverage of the flotilla raid reveal his understanding of pluralism and democracy. According to his thinking, anyone who does not make near-hate speeches is “sub-contracted” to an Israeli-controlled network.
This is similar to the monotonous views reflexively expressed in the “yellow press.” If one is not a fierce supporter of Mr. Erdoğan and his ideological traits, he is automatically an “Ergenekoncu” (a supporter of the alleged Ergenekon gang). If one is skeptical about Mr. Erdoğan’s democratic credentials and governance, he is automatically a fascist Kemalist. If a judge voices concern about a legal amendment championed by the government, he is a member of a shadowy network of juristocrats.
But let’s go back to the “Israeli-sponsored” coverage of the incident. I checked and re-checked and re-checked the front pages of ALL Turkish newspapers in the aftermath of the Israeli attack. All headlines, sidebars, related stories and comments were full of anger toward Israel for the attack. This column’s June 2 title was “Is Netanyahu a crypto-mullah?” For days and days the Turkish news coverage was monolithically “anti-Israeli.” In those days, the only “dissident voice” was Mr. Gülen’s.
What could have so angered Mr. Erdoğan that he confidently resorted to conspiracy theories? It was probably the news coverage and comments that came in later days, still criticizing Israel for its action, but probably not in Mr. Erdoğan’s favorite wording, and probably also criticizing the jihadist rhetoric of the “aid activists.”
Sadly, EU candidate Turkey in the year 2010 has a prime minister who has zero tolerance for any view other than his own. See why his “yellow journalists” must get in line like behaving pupils each time they sit at their keyboards?