Vicious Plot, and Pieces of Advice to Neo-Con Rubin

by Abdülhamit Bilici, Today's Zaman Wednesday, 16 April 2008 04:19

This malicious play has started to be a bit too boring. Those involved in it might be happy, but we have gotten sick of watching the same old play over and over again.

The leading role in the latest screenplay has been assumed by American neo-con Michael Rubin. In his latest article in the National Review, Rubin brought up his claim which he has flogged to death: Fethullah Gülen's return to Turkey will resemble Khomeini's return to Iran. Please don't tell me you're hearing of this claim for the first time here, because the Cumhuriyet daily has been reiterating it for almost five years now. So much so that two years ago it was used as a title in an article by Doğu Silahçıoğlu (May 9, 2006), a columnist for Cumhuriyet as well a retired general, who defends that Islam and Turkishness "are two teachings that cannot come together because of their natures"; who is disturbed even by the Islamic terms in our national anthem; and who calls for "the formation of a national front with the support of constitutional institutions" so that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government may be banished from power as soon as possible.

If Rubin was an objective researcher and introduced a new approach to the matter, we could accord some degree of value to his views. However the Turkish public knows this person so well that in terms of his objectiveness as regards the subjects he dwells on, he is as objective and reliable as Hikmet Çetinkaya is in Turkey.

In fact Rubin, whose hatred toward the democratic government that came to power in Turkey six years ago as a result of a democratically-held election is so obvious in his articles, has made Gülen his prime target this time. How can a person who describes this democratic experience in Turkey, viewed as hopeful both in the West and the Islamic world, as Islamofascism, be objective?

As a matter of fact, it is best to not take seriously the claims of such people, whose fame for telling lies, twisting the truth and spreading disinformation has been "certified," whose names are mentioned in scandals caused by exposed cases of spying for Israel and who are considered marginal even in their own countries, because all of the claims about Gülen were taken to court and his acquittal was approved unanimously by the 9th Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals on March 8. The claim of the chief prosecutor of the court that the case was dropped not because of the acquittal but because it surpassed the statute of limitations is but a formality. Therefore, rather than delving into the details of these claims, I'd better draw your attention to a recent plot carefully staged by certain segments.

Many examples we have seen so far show us how this plot is staged: For instance, Doğu Perinçek, the leader of the Workers' Party (İP), is still under custody in relation to the investigation into the Ergenekon terrorist organization and his son writes for a Moscow-based Russian daily and keeps making accusations against Gülen. And then certain newspapers in Turkey bring up these claims under the spotlight as if they were the objective news articles of the Russian media. And then all of a sudden we see that this outdated news article, inclusive of the same old fabricated claims, hits the headlines as "Russian media warns about Gülen."

These marginal circles have become so skilled and artful in hatching plots that are too complicated for a coy Anatolian youth to comprehend because these are figures that have spent their lives shuffling between different power centers and have therefore become hardened. Once upon a time, they, with their Maoist identities, were assigned to missions against Russian-type communists and were given the rewards of this service by centers which they accuse of being imperialists today. With the circumstances having changed, they have made Moscow their new home.

Sometimes they became very intimate friends with the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and made appearances in the Bekaa Valley. Then they became the staunchest neo-nationalists overnight and proved to be the most militant figures. They started standing at the peck and call of some people whose names have been mentioned in every dark event that has happened since the exposition of the Susurluk scandal in 1996. While calling Turkish troops stationed in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) "occupants" some years ago, they have now started defying the West during rallies where Cyprus is defended.

For these circles who are face to face with accusations regarding so many dark events, such as the attack on the Council of State, attacks on Fethullah Gülen are like a life buoy. They are trying to impede an investigation being carried out through legal decisions made by judges and prosecutors by saying that Gülen had it launched using his influence within the state. That's why they are staging the same disinformation play both inside and outside of the country.

This plot is quite blatant in Rubin's article, too. Rubin bases his claims on the most "objective" (!!) news source in Turkey: Cumhuriyet. Most of the elements in his article are "original products" of Cumhuriyet, including the comparison between Khomeini and Gülen. And Rubin's article, full of ill-famed theses fabricated by Cumhuriyet, made it to Cumhuriyet's headline yesterday: "Gülen like Khomeini." They put the phrase in quotation marks to emphasize that the remark belongs to somebody else and to further emphasize that Rubin is a dignified and trustworthy news source, they used this title for him: "An American expert on the Middle East and Iran."

Of course, this is a mutual exchange. Rubin did not fail to clear his news source, whose name has been besmirched through the exposition of its former junta attempts. In his article, he likens Cumhuriyet to The New York Times and İlhan Selçuk to the famous American journalist Walter Cronkite. Just another case of "cook it yourself and eat it yourself," as we say in Turkish.

This means The New York Times is a newspaper that opposes all democratic initiatives, defends a certain segment of elites, casts aspersions upon people without basing its allegations on any concrete evidence and, more importantly, has meddled in attempts of a coup d'état. In the meanwhile, a small study I conducted has revealed that İlhan Selçuk will not like a comparison between him and Walter Cronkite because, 92-year-old Cronkite is engaged in efforts that seek to strengthen dialogue between religions, as does Gülen. He is the spokesperson and honorary president of the Interfaith Alliance, which brings 75 different religions together under its roof. He is older than İlhan Selçuk, but he spends his time working for charity activities, not for dark affairs. Moreover, Cronkite, a journalist, came into prominence after he strived to reveal before the eyes the deep and dark ties between Kennedy's assassination and the Watergate scandal. He is also against the idea of elitism.

I have a few pieces of advice for Rubin: First of all, deal with the Ergenekon gang as you do with Gülen. This gang reportedly threw a bomb at the headquarters of Cumhuriyet daily, which you like so much. Secondly, read Hasan Cemal's book, titled "Don't get frustrated, I wrote about myself," before you talk about İlhan Selçuk as a wise journalist. Thirdly, acknowledge that you could not manage to persuade the United States to support a possible coup against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and give up threatening Condoleezza Rice. Write about the last six dark months, as does Cemal, so that we get illuminated about the issue. Who knows, maybe we will get to know the compatriots of the US well. Fourthly, if you have some time left, ponder how the same circles succeed in getting in contact at the same time with American and Russian imperialists.