We all commit our crimes. The thing is to not lie about them–
to try to understand what you have done, why you have done it.
That way, you can begin to forgive yourself. That’s very important.
If you don’t forgive yourself you’ll never be able to forgive anybody else
and you’ll go on committing the same crimes forever. ANOTHER COUNTRY, James Baldwin
He bores me, this Erdoğan. A typically flawed tragic hero, now in his political death throes. The story’s been told a million times and the ending is always the same. And Erdoğan, like all the others, deserves it. Now the sharks are gathering. They pumped him up to do their job, this street-wise corner boy from Istanbul. Fingered early, he rose to power. He thought he was prime minister but he was really a pawn. To make up for that shattering awareness, he yelled, scowled and sneered for ten tedious years. They told him to be a tough guy. And he tried. But he thought tough meant straight ahead all the time, all the time with the mouth going. For a while that didn’t bother them. They thought he knew his country. But now they (and the world) know better.
It must have been nice to go to the White House and be hailed by the back-slapping Bush as the leader of the Turks. And because he knew no English and he thought Bush did, and because his advisors were yes-men and a few yes-women, Tayyip became the boss of the American pipedream about mixing moderate Islam with democracy. It will lead to peace in the Middle East, they said. And all honor and glory and riches to himself, he thought. And all he had to do was ramrod some changes on secular, democratic Turkey changing it into another country. They told him more: that he would be in a privileged relationship with the USA, like Israel. You have a free hand. And we will help you out in all respects. And Tayyip saw that it was a good deal and was pleased, so pleased that he always smiled broadly in the White House. The secular, democratic Turks at home in Turkey were surprised that their nation’s leader always looked constipated at home yet so frivolous in America. But it was merely noted in passing because they were mostly asleep, like the Turkish Army. No one even noticed that for his election night acceptance speech he wore a solid, Islamic green tie.
Later, when Obama came to Turkey spouting about “predominantly Christian America” and “predominantly Muslim Turkey,” Tayyip suddenly understood, like Archimedes floating in his bathtub. Shouting EUREKA! to himself, Tayyip had suddenly discovered DIVISION as a political process. Now you’re talking my language! So Tayyip went to work. He divided Sunni from Alevites, “his” people from the rest of the Turks, rakı and beer drinkers from ayran drinkers, head covered women from women whose hair blew gaily in the wind. He separated “his” people from terrorists (everyone else), “his” propaganda-spewing media from the few honest newspapers. And now, with the help of his bewildering foreign minister, has separated Turkey from the rest of the world. But make no mistake about one thing…Erdoğan has an incredible genius for unifying. Now, except for “his” people,” the world is unified AGAINST him.
He also has a genius for making money, tons of it.
In a decade he went from whining about how he couldn’t raise his family on a prime minister’s salary to countless wealth. His family owns fleets, land, everything imaginable. Rumors of Swiss bank accounts abound. A former American ambassador said as much. Erdoğan’s foreign excursions always include hundreds of his bad-actor* business cronies. America made a warrior out of him, pointing out the boundless financial opportunities inherent in destroying nations. Hence his avid embrace of the now catastrophic “Arab Spring.” Obama’s baseball bat and America’s fat wallet did wonders for Tayyip’s cooperative spirit. He could be a team player particularly after he became the team leader. Bye-bye Gadaffi! Who needs human rights awards when you can lead democracy’s charge across North Africa. Bye-bye Assad! Your uncovered wife makes mine nervous. So Hello NATO! Hello Al-Qaeda! Hello hell!
And here’s another “hello.” It goes way back. Hello Feto! a diminutive and derisive nickname for Fethullah Gülen. Gülen is a weepy, elementary-school-educated “Islamic leader” (and CIA asset) who lives in bucolic, well-protected splendor in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. A Green Card holder courtesy of his CIA sponsors, he is a treacherous financial dynamo seemingly lifted from a James Bond novel. His Movement, (cemaat in Turkish) has completely infiltrated and undermined secular Turkey. He had revealed his intent long before he had escaped from the Turkish courts into the loving arms of the CIA. A tape of his treacherous words surfaced in 1999 wherein he said:
You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers…. Until the conditions are ripe, they [the followers] must continue like this. If they do something prematurely, the world will crush our heads, and Muslims will suffer everywhere, like in the tragedies in Algeria, like in 1982 [in] Syria, like in the yearly disasters and tragedies in Egypt…The time is not yet right. You must wait for the time when you are complete and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it…You must wait until such time as you have gotten all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institutions in Turkey…Now, I have expressed my feelings and thoughts to you all—in confidence…trusting your loyalty and secrecy. I know that when you leave here, [just] as you discard your empty juice boxes, you must discard the thoughts and the feelings that I expressed here. **
Of course then, Gülen was talking treason. Today, he is acting treasonously. His infiltration of the Turkish state is everywhere. In the judiciary, the media, the military, the state police, the parliament and in the ruling party. It is well known that the Gülen movement’s heavy hand is instrumental in the legal fiasco that has destroyed the credibility of the Turkish legal system. The same hand was instrumental in the astonishing and ongoing police violence from the Gezi Park Movement.
Only a fool would fail to notice the common ground that Erdoğan and Gülen stand upon, united by their allegiance to the aims of the United States, fueled by cold, hard American dollars, ever encouraged by the cold, sneaky hand of the CIA. Erdogan controls everything in Turkey with his hands of stone. Thanks to their collaboration, the army’s professional leadership is in jail. The judicial system is rancid. There is neither justice nor democracy in Turkey but the police clubs, tear gas, water cannons, bullets (rubber and real) are everywhere. The police destroy all democratically demonstrating groups with the violence of Hitler’s Brownshirts. It is widely known that the Gulen movement played a major role in the legal fiasco called Ergenekon of which the prime minister dubbed himself chief prosecutor. The jail system is a penal industry by itself on the order of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s, The Gulag Archipelago. Telephone conversations, e-mail messages, are monitored. There is no privacy in Turkey. The prime minister encourages so-called “neighbors” to report all fellow neighbors if they dare bang on pots protesting the government. He claims such banging violates people’s privacy. There is no freedom of banging in Turkey either. The cleansing of leftist patriots continues, in the army and in all institutions controlled by the government. The brutal crackdown on Gezi Park demonstrators continues in all its Erdoğanian fury. Call what’s happening in Turkey a post-modern extermination campaign. And the astonishingly unreliable political opposition acts as the ruling party’s best friend and may even be an active collaborator in the destruction of secular Turkey.
And Erdoğan? Outside Turkey he has ruined himself. His near delirious rants, preposterous claims, the insults flying, the ignorance of his advisors all fully displayed on the world stage. His rage, greed, and arrogance have brought him to comic levels. But his money and his bad-actor friends and advisors remain. And so does he prime minister. In any other country he would have long been rejected by the electorate forthwith. But as long as America says, yes, Erdoğan remains. So sad for Turkey to be the lapdog of the likes of Erdoğan, Fethullah Gulen and America. So sad for Islam to be linked with these two masters of deceit. So sad for the Turkish people to be harnessed to the moral corruption that is Turkish politicized Islam.
Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Erdogan betrayed a lot more for a lot more. Treachery has always been a good business, indeed an American specialty in their CIA-driven foreign policy. And it perfectly suits Erdoğan’s two-faced description of “his” Turkey as an “advanced democracy.” But now he stands alone, babbling nonsense, rich, naked to the world and disgraced. One wonders if he even knows this much. What price this glory? What price this treason?
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
MACBETH, William Shakespeare
Cem Ryan, Ph.D.
25 August 2013
Istanbul
NOTES:
* According to the Merriman-Webster Dictionary, a “bad actor” is an unruly,
turbulent, or contentious individual.
** See Claire Berlinski’s excellent article, Who Is Fethullah Gülen? inCity Journal, Autumn 2012.
“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” Erasmus
Forget what the big-mouth crime ministers and the duplicitous oral cavities of selected foreign ministers are shouting about democracy. About political “mandates.” About how they represent the living essences of “the will of the people.” And about how they all care so deeply for all the downtrodden and abused of the world. These ignoramus champions of democracy shamelessly harangue the world ad nauseam about the importance of elections, elections, elections. Remember the purple index fingers wagging after the first post-Saddam election in Iraq? And the wonderful “democracy” that followed and is still slaughtering its citizens. If democracy only needs elections then we are all indeed lost on the road to ruin with our purple index fingers tucked securely where the sun don’t shine. All these crime ministers and “Nobel” presidents babble gibberish because they understand very little about democracy. And the biggest babbler of all? The ever-scowling, ever-treacherous winner of the 2010 (and last) Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the crime minister of that so-called democracy, Turkey. The award was cancelled after Al-Gaddafi was disemboweled and anal raped by the valiant democratic gangs aided and abetted by NATO under the inspirational leadership of the two international thugs who are now attempting to destroy Syria, “Bonnie” Obama and his partner in international crime, “Clyde” Erdoğan. They have yet to be added to the following list of democratically elected dictators. But their day may be nearing.
The following betrayers of their oaths of office also had mandates. And they all promptly forgot, ignored or destroyed the other aspects of a democratic form of government. Elections without a fully aware, fully protected, fully functioning electorate are worthless. And also worthless were the elections of these dictators:
Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan), 1991-present
Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia, Paraguay, 1813-1840
Jorge Ubico, Guatemala, 1931-1944
Forbes Burnham, Guyana, 1966-1984
Artur de Costa e Silva, Brazil 1947-1969
Juan Maria Bordaberry, Uruguay, 1972-1976
Alberto Fujimori, Peru, 1992-93
Mohamed Morsi, Egypt, 2012-2013
François Duvalier, Haiti, 1959-1971
Adolph Hitler, Germany, 1933-1945
It need not even be said that those who are democratically elected are duty-bound to honor and support both the process and institution called democracy. None of the above did, despite swearing to do so.
So let’s examine today’s most vocal defender of his own “democratic” essence, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. How does his own country, Turkey, stand regarding its democratic structure? “Democracy,” Erdoğan once declared, “is like a trolley car. You ride it until you arrive at your destination, then you step off.” This is a vitally important statement. While it reveals what we already know about Erdoğan, it also confirms that he knows nothing about the democratic process and, more dangerously, has no respect for the concept. Astounding it is that such a person could even be considered electable in a secular democracy. But then even the street dogs in Istanbul know how THAT happened. It undoubtedly will come as a surprise and shock to Erdoğan when learns that democracy is intended to outlast its participants and is not merely a stop at a mosque, a Turkish bath or the White House. Such deceit-filled thinking is typical of the deceptive language used throughout the decade-long Erdoğan regime.
This screwed-up thinking is akin to his and his party’s claim that the mean old dictator, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, traumatized the citizens of the new Turkish Republic by changing the alphabet from Ottoman script to Roman script. Trauma indeed, for a nation’s people of whom 90% lived in rural areas and 97% were illiterate! Forget the trauma of unlearning one and relearning another alphabet, they never knew one in the first place. Instead, it was the “thrill” of enlightenment which “traumatized” them, a learning experience (or trauma) which still seems to have eluded Erdoğan and his supporters. In fact, Atatürk knew instinctively what the new republic’s fundamentally impoverished people needed most in order to live and prosper in a modern secular state and future democracy. And that was first, literacy, then, education.
It is important to expand this point. To remediate this national educational deficit, Atatürk conceived of a nationwide rural learning system called the Village Institute. Designed to teach language skills and much more, it began in 1940. Six years later, the first fatal sign of Turkish compliance with America’s needs appeared. Godless communism had become a threat after the World War II and God-filled Turkey had a job to do. And so came the nonsense of the Islamic Green Belt protecting the west and the tagging of Turkey as a religious nation. Thus the Village Institute System must be disbanded. Too risky. Too red. Those bad communists would infiltrate and overthrow everything. So it follows that the disaster that is Turkey today regarding the great percentage of its uninformed voters began with the abandonment of the Village Institute system. How generous were the Turkish democratic politicians selling out to America’s interests. So today illiteracy rates, particularly among rural women remain uncomfortably high. But no one, least of all, Erdoğan is concerned. It keeps him afloat politically. So far.
But let’s start at the beginning. What does a country need to maintain a viable flourishing democracy? First, its citizens need guaranteed protections, else why sign-on as citizens. This is codified in a constitution which enumerates the nature and conditions of personal and political rights. It also states the terms of fair and free elections. Also vital to democracy is the inviolable presence of an independent judiciary uninfluenced by the political regime. Another key requirement of democracy is the separation of powers, namely that executive, legislative and judicial branches operate independently. And how about Mr. Erdoğan’s record after swearing to support and defend the constitution of Turkey?
He has actively worked to subvert it. He has illegally detained and/or incarcerated thousands of those opposed to his regime. Articles dealing with freedom of speech, assembly, and media expression have been trampled by the heavy boots of religious fascism. The courts are the extension of the ruling party and the ruling party is simply Erdoğan, himself. He has even declared himself to be the “chief prosecutor” of a sham case called Ergenekon. And what about the security of the nation’s borders? Erdoğan, aided and abetted by America, has destroyed the nation’s defense system. The experienced commanding general staff is in prison. The collaborators now command. Senior officers sold out their subordinates. One general is even considered to have been a secret witness against his comrades in arms. So much for moral and esprit-de-corps. So much for trust and honor. So much for the viability of the military academies. Equally worrisome, the police rule with a viciousness unparalleled since the good old days of Pinochet’s Chile and Hitler’s Germany. The Gezi Park Movement revealed the full horror of Erdoğan’s state police. Even more troublesome for the Turkish citizenry, is the questionable allegiance of the nation’s security forces. They seem to be oddly influenced and even controlled by a foreign power, namely a longstanding CIA asset/imam residing in Pennsylvania. (In case this sounds strange to you, it has been in all the newspapers, even a few in Turkey). Worse yet, Erdoğan has jeopardized the nation’s security by collaborating with America in the destruction of numerous North African and Middle East nations, most lately Syria and Egypt. Put plainly, these have been disasters for all concerned, and a political and moral disaster for Erdoğan. The integrity of the Turkish state seems at great risk, particularly regarding its eastern borders. And finally, let’s speak of Erdoğan’s favorite subject, elections. The election campaigns, aside from his usual bombast, has consisted of bribes-for-votes. Coal, food, even refrigerators (whether or not the village has electricity) are delivered to the ever-grateful, if somewhat bemused, masses living in the hinterlands.
So what, you might be saying. That’s the way democracy works in the world. And anyway, all politicians are thieves and liars. Tragically, perhaps you are right. So let’s all just lean back and enjoy our extermination. But I am talking about Turkey here, a nation chosen by America to be a role model of Islamic democracy so peace can reign throughout the carnage that has always been the Middle East. Of course, the premise is ludicrous, even delusional. We all know it. And now the world knows it. How the people of the democratic, secular Republic of Turkey have suffered from this catastrophic delusion promoted by their deluding politicians. A few questions are necessary to complete this analysis of Erdoğan’s democratic credentials.
Is it a democracy when someone writing a political opinion unfavorable to the regime is jailed?
Is it a democracy when newspapers are controlled by the political regime?
Is it a democracy when citizens exercise their constitution right to assemble and are brutally attacked by police with tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets, real bullets, clubs, truncheons, boots, scimitars, butcher knives and blades of all varieties?
Is it a democracy when these same police are celebrated by the prime minister as heroes? Is it a democracy when telephone conversations are recorded without a court order?
Is it a democracy when people are arrested and incarcerated for years without due process?
Is it a democracy when a prime minister’s children openly campaign to subvert the provisions of the Turkish constitution?
Is it a democracy when houses are ransacked in “fishing expeditions” for evidence without court order? Is it a democracy when a nation’s judicial system is controlled by the ruling political party?
Is it a democracy when the police brutally assault, even murder, innocent citizens and are not held accountable? Is it a democracy when secret witnesses give testimony that is never examined in open court?
Is it a democracy when journalists, writers, academicians, political thinkers, rot in jail because they dare to have ideas?
Is it a democracy when convicted murderers of judges are bribed to give secret testimony and are afterwards acquitted?
Is it a democracy when an entire military leadership cadre is jailed on trumped-up charges that even schoolchildren would laugh at?
Is it a democracy when anyone opposed to the ruling party is considered a terrorist? I
Is it democracy when opposition parties that gain less than 10% of the total vote are denied seating in parliament?
Is it democracy when a prime minister advises neighbors to report to the police other neighbors who bang on pots and pans in protest against his regime?
Is it democracy when school authorities are told to inform on students and teachers who may have participated in the Gezi Park protests?
Is it a democracy when prime ministers insult the legitimacy of religious groups such as the Alevites in Turkey?
Is it a democracy when the houses of Alevites are marked with hate messages?
Is it a democracy when government vendettas are conducted against businesses, humanitarian organizations, lawyers and doctors, all those public spirited entities, who act to defend the constitutionally guaranteed interests of innocent citizens being brutally attacked by the state police force?
Is it a democracy when a government engages in general devastation of the environment, larceny of a nation’s treasure, captures the public space as its own, conducts unremitting surveillance of the populace, degrades the civil conscience and constantly rebukes contrary opinions?
If so, then what? If not, then what?
Regarding Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, what is he?
Cem Ryan, Ph.D.
Istanbul
19 August 2013
“What if a demon were to creep after you one night, in your loneliest loneliness, and say, ‘This life which you live must be lived by you once again and innumerable times more; and every pain and joy and thought and sigh must come again to you, all in the same sequence. The eternal hourglass will again and again be turned and you with it, dust of the dust!’ Would you throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse that demon? Or would you answer, ‘Never have I heard anything more divine’?”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Bilal Erdoğan, the Turkish prime minister’s son. 16 August 2013. At Fatih Mosque, Istanbul, participating in a demonstration for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Placards advocated against democracy and for the return of the caliphate
Demonstration at Fatih Mosque, Istanbul. 16 August 2013
Demonstration at Fatih Mosque, Istanbul. 16 August 2013
“Where’s my space to pray in this mosque?” inquires Muslim feminist Hind Makki in a post about her bold project, Side Entrance, which calls out mosques for their successes and failures when it comes to making adequate and equal provisions for women.
Germany “Men and women at Juma prayers at the Islamic Centre of Hamburg in Germany.” From http://sideentrance.tumblr.com/
Side Entrance is a Tumblr blog and Facebook page that tackles the issue of women’s prayer spaces in comparison to men’s with reader-submitted photos from all over the world that show the often drastic difference in quality between the two. The blog’s introduction says simply, “Photos from mosques around the world, showcasing women’s sacred spaces, in relation to men’s spaces. We show the beautiful, the adequate and the pathetic.”
Hind Makki explains the reason behind the project:
I was moved to write a piece about women’s mosque experiences during Ramadan 2012, when my friend was berated and nearly kicked out of her mosque for daring to pray in the half-used 2nd floor of a multi-million dollar mosque, behind the male congregants. She prayed upstairs because the women’s area in the basement was hot, loud and moldy. That incident spurred me to start this Tumblr, though I’ve had idea of showcasing the differences between men and women’s prayer spaces in mosques for a long time.
There are many mosques around the world that boast incredible space for female congregants. Yet, in my experience, there are many more with inadequate or bad spaces for women. Still, other mosques bar women from entering altogether. The prayer experiences of many Muslim women are too often frustrating; mosques seem to be built to cater only to the male experience. Yet it is my optimistic belief that as more people see photos of the spaces women must pray in, and hear our stories, we will gain more male allies, who will collaborate with us to improve the situation.
Makki also posts quotes from readers and articles that relate to the ongoing debate about the role of women in the mosque, often revealing the frustration and sadness felt by women who are barred from fully participating in the religion they earnestly practice.
Ruwaida Gafoor comments, “I feel that many women in my community don’t attend the Jummah salaah because we have been conditioned not to do so. Also, the masjid is designed in a way that deters women from attending.”
Evidently, there must be a change in mental attitudes as well as physical spaces to properly make a difference.
Makki celebrates the beauty of mosques around the world, but brings up the very valid point that it’s unfair for women to worry about the invididual attitudes of each specific mosque before they enter. In a post titled, “70 Insanely Beautiful Mosques Around the World,” she reflects:
Each time I see a particularly stunning mosque, I immediately wonder, “Is there a women’s prayer area? Do they keep it unlocked during prayer times? If I were ever blessed to visit this beautiful mosque, would there be an adequate place for me to pray?”
Not having to immediately think about these questions when seeing a mosque you ache to pray in, that is Muslim male privilege.
Another quote by Rashid Patch succinctly addresses the blog’s position on the issue of women’s place in the mosque: “If women can’t enter, it doesn’t count as a masjid.”
via Women’s Prayer Spaces Featured In ‘Side Entrance’ Blog: A Call For Improved Conditions In Mosques.
ON MONDAY, AUGUST 5, TURKISH DEMOCRACY WILL DIE IN PUBLIC, STRIPPED NAKED BY THE FORCES OF FASCISM AND TREASON. ALL APPROPRIATE AND DISPROPORTIONATE VIOLENCE WILL BE RENDERED.
THE BIGGEST LEGAL FIASCO IN HISTORY, ONE CALLED ERGENEKON, WILL BE DECIDED BY JUDGES WHO HAVE SPENT YEARS SLEEPING AT THE BENCH. IN BIZARRE HARMONY, THE HAPLESS ACCUSED HAVE SPENT YEARS IN PRISON AWAITING THEIR RIGHT TO A SPEEDY TRIAL DUE TO DELAYS IN THE GATHERING, TAMPERING, POLLUTING AND CREATION OF EVIDENCE. COMPLICATING MATTERS FURTHER, SECRET WITNESSES HAD REMAINED SO SECRETIVE THAT THEY WERE DIFFICULT TO LOCATE AND COMPENSATE. THUS DIRECT CONFRONTATION AND EXAMINATION BY DEFENSE COUNSELS WAS NOT AVAILABLE.
BUT THIS MONDAY, THIS BLOODY MONDAY, WILL BE THE DAY THAT JUSTICE SPEAKS GIBBERISH AND ALLTHE CLOCKS IN TURKEY RUN BACKWARDS. ALL PEOPLE WHO BELIEVED IN THE RULE OF LAW WILL GATHER IN PUBLIC DISBELIEF AT THE ABSURD VERDICT RENDERED BY ABSURD JUDGES EDUCATED AT THE ALICE IN WONDERLAND SCHOOL OF LAW.
THE GOVERNOR OF ISTANBUL, A MAN NAMED HAPPY, HAS HAPPILY BUT UNDEMOCRATICALLY BANNED ALL GATHERINGS, DEMONSTRATIONS, CHANCE MEETINGS, AND SOCIAL DATES BETWEEN BEAUTIFUL WOMEN AND HANDSOME MEN WITHIN 15,000 KILOMETERS OF THE COURT, WHICH IS LOCATED AT THE PRISON. UNHAPPILY NAMED SILIVRI, THE PRISON IS IN FACT 380,000 KILOMETERS (ON AVERAGE) FROM THE EARTH ON THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON. SOMEWHAT PARADOXICALLY, GOVERNOR HAPPY CONFIDENTLY CLAIMS TO BE A LAWYER.
TO CHEER AND HASTEN THE CITIZENRY ON ITS COLLECTIVE WAY TO DISBELIEF AND DESPAIR, GOVERNOR HAPPY HAS ASSEMBLED DIVISIONS OF ROBOCOPS TO SQUEEZE PEPPER GAS AND BATTALIONS OF RUBBER-BULLET MARKSMEN TO LACERATE FOREHEADS AND DESTROY EYE SOCKETS. SINCE THE WEATHER WILL BE SEASONABLY HOT, THE EVER HELPFUL HAPPY WILL GATHER HIS COLORFUL FLEETS OF ACID WATER SPRAY TRUCKS TO REFRESH THE BY NOW BEATEN, BRUISED AND SEMICONSCIOUS CITIZENS OF WHAT WAS ONCE CALLED THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY, A SECULAR NATION OPERATING UNDER THE RULE OF LAW.
MONDAY, BLOODY MONDAY, THE SADDEST OF ALL POSSIBLE DAYS.
Cem Ryan Istanbul, the unhappiest of cities in the unhappiest of countries
4 August 2013
“It was a cold, bright day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.” 1984, George Orwell
The Honorable Barack H. Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
USA
Dear Mr. President:
It has been three years since I last wrote to you advising that there was a political force rising in Turkey to throw off the Islamo-Fascist ruling party, the now infamous AKP. Mr. President, you know AKP well, even embracing the malevolent prime minister as a friend. I am sorry for the harm this has done to your reputation and America’s. This damage is irreducible and nothing can be done either for you or the Turkish prime
minister. But plenty can and should be done for the Turkish people.
I was wrong in using the words “political force” in my earlier letter. The force that has arisen transcends politics and politicians. It is suigeneris and it is for real. Its name, GEZI PARK RESISTANCE; its success is inevitable. Inevitable, yes, inevitable despite you and your agents destructive and subversive meddling with the democratic, secular Republic of Turkey. The world knows the truth, Mr. President, that the AKP is the main
destructive force in Turkey. And before the Turkish Constitutional Court was destroyed it opined similarly.
After a ten-year on-going coup by the now-radical Islamic AKP, Turkey is fully under occupation. You and your CIA and all your other subversive operators have achieved another great victory over another secular country. For shame, Mr. President, to spout about democratic values the while undermining and destroying all institutions along with the culture essential for democracy. There is no democracy in Turkey. And that’s why the Turkish youth took to the streets. To restore the nation’s embrace of the founding principles of Atatürk. To assure that they, the Turkish young people, would have a viable future, just like young people in America. You wouldn’t gas them, would you, Mr. President? Then why, in the middle of all this unspeakable violence, did you sell the lamentable Erdoğan even more toxic pepper gas? Why? (I have copies of the invoices, Mr. President.)
To maim the young, patriotic Turkish democrats who chose to fight for their freedom? Over ten thousand injured. Eleven have lost eyes from gas capsules directly aimed at their faces by the fascist police. 106 people suffered severe head trauma damage. Five dead. And blindings, poisonings, deaths, beatings by the police, and pursuits by AKP “civilian” police with scimitars… And now eleven thousand more imprisoned in an AKP nazi-style round-up. And still you sell this criminal government more deadly chemicals for the desperate Erdoğan to injure, blind and kill his fellow Turkish citizens. History will not be kind to you for this, Mr. President. Nor will it be kind to your mouse of an ambassador, one Francis Ricciardone, who described the AKP government’s apalling violence against Atatürk’s Turkish Youth as its having a “conversation about your future.” Such a conversation! Such disgusting words! What benumbed diplomatic brain would utter such stupidity? He has further encouraged the fascist criminals in the AKP government with additional platitudes about the USA sharing democratic values with these AKP gangsters. How could you tolerate such tripe from such a high-level representative of our country, Mr. President? How?
President Obama at Anıtkabir
You, on your first visit to Turkey, stood misty-eyed at Atatürk’s grave on April 6, 2009. There and then, you wrote in the guest book that you looked forward to “supporting Ataturk’s vision of Turkey” and “providing ‘peace at home, peace in the world.’” Were these remarks sincere, Mr. President? Perhaps. Or were you lying through your crocodile tears? Perhaps. But the real truth is that your words have indeed proved hollow. You unashamedly embraced and continue to support the repulsive policies of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, policies that have brought disasters at home and chaos in the world. Do you still stand behind your ambassador’s lamentable support for one of the greatest ongoing human rights violations since America’s murderous antics with Pinochet in Chile forty years ago? Would you dare return to Turkey and repeat your past words about Mustafa Kemal Atatürk? I doubt it. The roof at Anıkabir would crash on your head. Do you still believe that a violent government like AKP, rotten to its core with human rights violations, shares America’s values? Given America’s “values” over the past ten years as applied to Turkey and the world you probably do. But do you know what you are supporting?
In less than a decade, the ruling party has imposed the shadow of the dark cloud of sharia over the land. The largest budget item is for the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Mosques and mini-mosques (mescit) are everywhere. Sounds spiritual doesn’t it? Well imagine what would happen in one of the occupying power’s land, say in America, if every theater, ballpark, shopping mall and school had a prayer chapel? That’s a bit much for a secular country like America to deal with, isn’t it? Sure it is. But that’s what the government of Turkey imposes on it’s own soon-to-collapse secular nation.
Moreover, early morning knocks-on-the-door have imprisoned thousands opposed to this government. All opposition are called terrorists and bounced into jail by Erdoğan’s kangaroo courts. University rectors have been defamed and deposed, replaced by government-friendly yes-men and yes-women. Same for the faculty members. Oh, and freedom of speech on campus or anywhere else? None!
You, a constitutional lawyer by training, know well that every democracy requires an independent judiciary. Not so in Turkey. Evidence is ill-gotten and completely tainted. Witnesses give secret, unsworn testimony. Those accused spend years and years in prison while “evidence” is gathered and contaminated. There is no effective, or even ineffective, law of habeas corpus. Judges and prosecutors are clients of the ruling party, in effect, the prime minister. Defense counsels are routinely punished and even arrested for making procedural objections in court.
You also know that a free press provides a vital protection against an abusive government. But not here, Mr. President. Except for a few minor and heroic exceptions, Turkey’s press and media is completely government-controlled. The prime minister tells the corrupt media bosses who to fire and who to hire. It is a sick joke, another travesty of justice. Yet most of the Turks read and watch the government’s puppet media. This speaks to the other requirement for democracy—the necessity to have an informed electorate. Forget that too in Turkey. More journalists are in jail in Turkey than anywhere in the world, including China and Iran.
As most people know, except perhaps Americans, Turkey occupies a dangerous spot in the world. For centuries, religious extremists have been imposing sharia governments on the citizens. Since Turkey became a secular state in 1923, it has been beset by these destructive religious elements. Hence the historic need for a strong army to protect itself from these dark external and internal forces. But now, since the dark forces have taken over the government, there is no longer a need for such an army. Why? Because the Islamo-Fascist conspired to destroy the staunchly secular Turkish military. In a series of ridiculously implausible conspiracies worthy of an Adolph Hitler, the army’s generals have been jailed and replaced by government-friendly hacks. And since the nation is already under occupation by religious extremists, the historical internal security responsibilities for the military have been eliminated by the parliament. Amazingly, the major opposition party voted in agreement. And who now has the responsibility for internal security? The thoroughly violent, completely nazified police. Turkey is indeed a nation under occupation. The dark forces are consolidating their power. And the young people stand alone facing the oppressive, treasonous government. And to the extent that you and your ambassador continue to provide deadly weapons to its police force, the young people face you too. Believe me, Mr. President, all of you should be worried and careful about this.
Having widely, and illegally, ignored the Turkish Constitution, the fascist government is writing a new one which will dramatically change Turkey to the presidential system (like America’s) and give even more power to the head of government. This is the hope and dream of the current prime minister. He will continue to do what he knows best: demeaning, dividing, lying, scheming, repressing, hating and revenging.
Civilian” Police and Police
Meanwhile murderous cops go free. Thousands of protestors (now known as terrorists) are in jail under unspeakably disgusting conditions. Every public assembly is considered a terrorist gathering. So-called “civilian police,” more accurately described as Hitler-Brownshirts, roam the streets with scimitars, meat cleavers, clubs and knives. This unspeakable, genuine terror has the full support of the prime minister. In fact, they are “his people,” AKP street thugs. And, in case you are wondering, the actual police are just as bad. The police force is under the de facto control of one of your CIA assets living under protection in rural Pennsylvania. Violence. Violence. Violence. None of this is mentioned by your representative in Ankara either. Nor you for that matter. The world knows, but you don’t? You need much better advisors, Mr. President.
Sadly for humanity, the Erdoğan of Turkey is also sui generis. Stubborn, arrogant, always straight ahead at full speed, the first ten days of the Gezi Park Resistance revealed his true essence in all its ignominy. And so it continues with rants about conspiracies, plots, name-callings, arrests, an overall disgraceful show of bad government and criminality. Erdoğan may have destroyed everything: the constitutional court, the media, the judicial system, rules of evidence, university independence, social life, the arts, the army and virtually all aspects of what had been the, as you yourself so movingly called it, “Ataturk’s vision of Turkey.” All these things may have been destroyed. But then Erdoğan called Atatürk a drunk. And that will finish him.
These kids have Erdoğan’s number. There is no way he can stand against their dazzling intelligence and creativity. I wish you had been with me in the streets to meet some of them. Then you would fully understand all that I have written. History tells us that fascists are like bulls, going forward ever forward, punishing and restricting and arresting. And at their end, they blabber into the wind and get their ravings blown back into their faces twice as hard. Turkey is now at that point. You may have noticed this, Mr. President. That’s why when the end comes for fascists, they fold up like cheap suits, their distorted world and their faults reeking of their doom. They, the fascists, are few, and the people, in Turkey’s case, the UNIFIED young people, who chant proudly that they are Mustafa Kemal’s soldiers, are many. And remember, Mr. President, both in the arena and out, the bull never wins.
Sincerely yours,
James (Cem) Ryan, Ph.D.
28 July 2013
Istanbul, Turkey
ATATÜRK’S TURKISH YOUTH “We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal!”
BRIEF BIO:
James (Cem) Ryan was born and raised in The Bronx, New York City. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he holds
advanced degrees in economics and English literature, a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in literature. He is a proponent for peace and founder of West Point Graduates Against the War: http://www.wpgaw.org/ and Service Academy Graduates Against the War:
The recently announced demand for lands from Turkey by the Prosecutor General of Armenia attracted much attention from Armenians worldwide and harsh criticism from the Turkish government. While this was the first time that an Armenian official had raised this issue since the country’s independence in 1991, the demand itself is not new. Armenians have been seeking the return of their historic territories from Turkey for decades.
A confidential 1943 document, declassified by the Central Intelligence Agency, reveals that the US government was well aware of the Armenian demands for recognition of the “atrocities” and return of Turkish occupied “provinces.”
The document dated December 13, 1943, authored by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor of the CIA, stated: “All the Armenian press in the United States is active in keeping the Turkish Armenian massacres fresh in the minds of its readers. Fearful that the Axis atrocities of the present war [World War II] will eclipse the atrocities of the last when the final reckoning comes, they are anxious to keep alive the Armenian case against Turkey. Armenians have present as well as past grievances against Turkey, whose capital levy tax ‘Varlik’ falls harder on Armenians than on any other minority group in Turkey. Even more unforgivable in the eyes of Armenians is the fact that Turkey holds provinces which, they are firmly convinced, belong rightfully to Armenia. Restitution of these provinces to Armenia is the goal of all Armenians.” Elsewhere in the document, OSS accurately reported that “Armenians, almost without exception, entertain feelings of deepest suspicion, hostility, and fear” toward Turkey.
A second declassified confidential document dated July 31, 1944, carries a surprising title: “Tashnags Turn to Soviet Russia.” The OSS indicated that “the once uncompromisingly anti-Soviet Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Tashnags) officially changed its spots, and the swing toward support of the Soviet Union, which has been growing gradually more perceptible during the last few months, has culminated in the adoption of a pro-Soviet policy at the Federation’s annual convention held in Boston the first week of July.” This OSS report was prepared as the Soviet Union had announced its intention to claim the Eastern provinces of Turkey (Kars, Ardahan, and Surmalou) in a post-World War II settlement. The Soviet claim was backed by the Armenian Church, the Soviet Armenian government and the Diaspora, including the anti-Soviet Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF).
The OSS astutely reported: “The Tashnags have never actually renounced their dream of a free and independent Armenia, including the Turkish irredenta, which has kept them at loggerheads with the USSR, ever since Armenia was established as a Soviet [illegible] in 1920. … With the vision of independence fading, the now Soviet-friendly Tashnags are turning their attention to the acquisition of the Turkish provinces of Armenia by the Soviet Armenian Republic.”
In explaining ARF’s post-war expectations, OSS stated: “If, as the Tashnags believe and hope, Turkey remains neutral [in World War II], she will be in a highly vulnerable position, and one item of payment for her neutrality, according to Mr. [James] Mandalian [editor of the Boston-based ARF newspaper Hairenik], would be the cession of Turkish Armenia to Soviet Armenia.”
The 1943 OSS document also contained a lengthy report on the Armenian-American press, focusing its attention on six of the 17 Armenian newspapers in the United States: “Hairenik and Asbarez (Tashnag)” classified as “rightist-nationalist;” “Baikar, Nor Or (Ramgavar)” and “Eritassard Hayastan (Hunchag)” classified as “liberal;” and Lraper (Armenian Progressive League of America)” classified as “leftist-Communist.” The last two newspapers are no longer in publication.
According to OSS, Hairenik and Asbarez are “strongly nationalist, anti-Soviet, and anti-Communist,” while Baikar is “resolutely opposed to the Tashnags and their principles. The Ramgavars have accepted the incorporation of Armenia into the Soviet Union as the most satisfactory way out of Armenian problems, and many articles are printed in Baikar extolling the Soviet regime in Armenia, particularly in its relations to the Armenian Apostolic Church.”
OSS estimated that the 95,000 Armenians in the United States in 1943, mostly settled in Massachusetts, New York, and California, “retain a keen interest in the affairs of their homeland [Soviet Armenia], though few, if any, would go back there.”
Of course then, Gülen was talking treason. Today, he is acting treasonously. His infiltration of the Turkish state is everywhere. In the judiciary, the media, the military, the state police, the parliament and in the ruling party. It is well known that the Gülen movement’s heavy hand is instrumental in the legal fiasco that has destroyed the credibility of the Turkish legal system. The same hand was instrumental in the astonishing and ongoing police violence from the Gezi Park Movement.
