We have defeated Gülen, we will also defeat Gül

This is official: Tayyip Erdoğan has defeated Fethullah Gülen. This open victory has empowered both Erdoğan and the warriors around him with enormous self-confidence. They are in euphoria of victory.

Their new position created by this euphoria of victory is something like that: “Whoever dares to challenge Erdoğan, regardless of his past, ideology, belief or his wife’s headscarf, we will make him like Fethullah Gülen.”

As a matter of fact, they have done so.

Anybody who is even a bit contradictory to them, in a split second, they will do what they have done to “Fethullah Gülen and his community.” In other words, they demonize him.

Look at Haşim Kılıç… Despite his honorable opinions he wrote in party closure cases when he was a member of the Constitutional Court, even though he had adopted a liberal stance ever since the time of the Welfare Party (RP), even though his wife wears a headscarf, just because he was a little bit on the contrary, wasn’t he all of a sudden put in the “enemy” category by Erdoğan and his aides?

Take Abdullah Gül, for instance. Despite the fact that he is one of the two important individuals in the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), despite the fact that he and Erdoğan have an invincible “fraternity,” despite his reputation in society, despite the fact that he has never openly opposed Erdoğan up until today, just because he has not said, “Whatever Erdoğan wishes, that will happen,” but that he said “We will talk about this matter among ourselves,” in other words, because he has not crossed to the absolute and clear obedience zone, he is being criticized…

They say that he has been winking to the West in foreign politics. They also say that he has been trying to paint a more liberal image than Erdoğan in domestic politics. He has been, it is rumored, trying to look slightly sympathetic to the anti-AK Party circles. They are adding more and more rumors.

There is almost only one thing that has been left unsaid, which is “The fellow at Çankaya is also ‘parallel’.”

Even though he is religious, a defender of Islam, even though he suffered from the secular order for 40 years, even though he is an Islamic leader, a member of an Islamic group, even though they have strong media, now, they have defeated Fethullah Gülen and his community…

With the self-confidence stemming from this victory, they are able to say, “Who is Haşim Kılıç?” And they also say, “Who is Abdullah Gül?”

Then, they add, “We can sweep them all.”

In short, the situation is like this: When Fethullah Gülen and his community were beaten; they have considered Abdullah Gül and Haşim Kılıç have also been defeated in advance.

My advice to the CHP

This is my advice to Republican People’s Party (CHP): You better break up.

Whose party will the main opposition CHP belong to? Will it be an ultra-nationalist, secular, anti-headscarf party of the likes of Birgül Ayman Güler who are hawkish in the Kurdish issue? Or will it be the party of those like Sezgin Tanrıkulu, who are pro-freedom and who favor a solution in the Kurdish issue?

The CHP has to decide.

 You may say, “What break up? It is the richness of the party that Güler and Tanrıkulu unite under the umbrella of the same party.”

No and No.

No party can handle this big a gap. It is a party where neither Sezgin Tanrıkulu nor Birgül Ayman Güler are completely adopted, where both sides cannot identify with themselves.

In such cases, instead of striving to maintain integrity, opting for a separation may cause, not shrinking, but perhaps a stronger start.