{"id":76185,"date":"2013-08-25T14:00:22","date_gmt":"2013-08-25T11:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=76185"},"modified":"2023-07-25T15:15:16","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T12:15:16","slug":"turkeys-poor-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2013\/08\/25\/turkeys-poor-player\/","title":{"rendered":"TURKEY\u2019S POOR PLAYER"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

We all commit our crimes. The thing is to\u00a0not lie about them–
\nto try to understand what you have done, why you have done it.
\nThat way, you can begin to forgive yourself. That’s very important.
\nIf you don’t forgive yourself you’ll never be able to forgive anybody else
\nand you’ll\u00a0go on committing the same crimes forever.<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ANOTHER COUNTRY, James Baldwin<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

He bores me, this Erdo\u011fan. 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 Erdo\u011fan, 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\u2019t bother them. They thought he knew his country.\u00a0But now they (and the world) know better.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\u00a0told him more: that he would be in a privileged relationship with the USA, like\u00a0Israel. You have a free hand. And we will help you out in all respects. And\u00a0Tayyip saw that it was a good deal and was pleased, so pleased that he always\u00a0smiled broadly in the White House. The secular, democratic Turks at home in Turkey were\u00a0surprised that their nation\u2019s leader always looked constipated at home\u00a0yet so\u00a0frivolous in America. But it was merely noted in passing because they were\u00a0mostly asleep, like the Turkish Army. No one even noticed that\u00a0for his election night acceptance speech he wore a solid, Islamic green tie.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Later, when Obama came to Turkey spouting about \u201cpredominantly Christian America\u201d and \u201cpredominantly Muslim Turkey,\u201d Tayyip suddenly understood, like Archimedes floating in his bathtub. Shouting EUREKA! to himself,\u00a0Tayyip had suddenly\u00a0discovered DIVISION as a political process. Now you\u2019re talking my language! So Tayyip went to work. He\u00a0divided Sunni from Alevites, \u201chis\u201d people from the rest of the Turks, rak\u0131 and\u00a0beer drinkers from ayran drinkers, head covered women from women whose hair blew gaily in the wind. He separated \u00a0\u201chis\u201d people from terrorists (everyone\u00a0else), \u201chis\u201d propaganda-spewing media from the few honest newspapers. And now,\u00a0with the help of his bewildering foreign minister, has separated Turkey from the rest of the\u00a0world. But make no mistake about one thing\u2026Erdo\u011fan has an incredible genius for\u00a0unifying. Now, except for \u201chis\u201d people,\u201d the world is unified AGAINST him.
\nHe also has a genius for making money, tons of it. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In a decade he went from whining about how he couldn\u2019t raise his family on a prime minister\u2019s\u00a0salary to\u00a0countless wealth. His\u00a0family owns fleets, land, everything imaginable. Rumors of Swiss bank accounts abound. A former American ambassador said as much.\u00a0Erdo\u011fan’s foreign excursions always include hundreds of his bad-actor* business cronies. America made a warrior out of him, pointing out the\u00a0boundless financial opportunities inherent in destroying nations. Hence his avid\u00a0embrace of the now catastrophic \u201cArab Spring.”\u00a0Obama\u2019s baseball\u00a0bat 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\u00a0NATO! Hello Al-Qaeda! Hello hell! <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"gaddafi\u00a0 \"erd<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
And here\u2019s another \u201chello.\u201d It goes way back. Hello Feto! \u00a0a diminutive and derisive\u00a0nickname for\u00a0Fethullah G\u00fclen.\u00a0\u00a0G\u00fclen is a weepy, elementary-school-educated \u201cIslamic leader\u201d (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\u00a0a James Bond novel.\u00a0His Movement, (cemaat<\/em> in Turkish)\u00a0has completely infiltrated and undermined secular Turkey. He had revealed his intent long before he had escaped from\u00a0the Turkish courts into the loving arms of the CIA.\u00a0A\u00a0tape of his treacherous words surfaced in 1999 wherein he said:<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n

You\u00a0must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your\u00a0existence\u00a0until you reach all the power centers…. Until the conditions are ripe, they\u00a0[the followers] must continue like this. If they do something prematurely, the\u00a0world will crush our heads, and Muslims will suffer everywhere, like in the\u00a0tragedies in Algeria, like in 1982 [in] Syria, like in the yearly\u00a0disasters and tragedies in Egypt…The time is not yet right. You must wait\u00a0for the time when you are complete and conditions are ripe, until we can\u00a0shoulder the entire world and carry it…You must wait until such time as\u00a0you have gotten all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the\u00a0power of the constitutional institutions in Turkey…Now, I have expressed\u00a0my feelings and thoughts to you all\u2014in confidence…trusting your loyalty\u00a0and secrecy. I know that when you leave here, [just] as you discard your empty\u00a0juice boxes, you must discard the thoughts and the feelings that I expressed\u00a0here.<\/strong> **<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\"Fethullah-Gulen-Kuran-Yetim\"Of course then, G\u00fclen\u00a0was\u00a0talking treason.\u00a0Today, 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 G\u00fclen 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.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Only a fool would fail to notice the common ground that Erdo\u011fan and G\u00fclen 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\u00a0everything in Turkey with his hands of stone. Thanks to their collaboration, the army\u2019s 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\u2019s Brownshirts. It is widely known that the Gulen\u00a0movement 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\u00a0industry by itself\u00a0on the order of Aleksandr\u00a0Solzhenitsyn\u2019s,\u00a0The Gulag Archipelago<\/em>. Telephone conversations, e-mail messages, are\u00a0monitored. There is no privacy in Turkey. The prime minister encourages so-called \u201cneighbors\u201d to report all fellow neighbors\u00a0if they dare\u00a0bang on pots\u00a0protesting the government. He claims such banging violates\u00a0people\u2019s\u00a0privacy. There is no\u00a0freedom of banging in Turkey either. The cleansing of leftist patriots continues, in the army and\u00a0in all\u00a0institutions controlled by the government. The\u00a0 brutal crackdown on Gezi Park\u00a0demonstrators continues in all its Erdo\u011fanian fury. Call what’s happening in Turkey\u00a0a post-modern\u00a0extermination campaign.\u00a0And the\u00a0astonishingly unreliable political opposition acts as the ruling party\u2019s best friend and may even be an active\u00a0collaborator in the destruction of secular Turkey. \u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And Erdo\u011fan? Outside Turkey he\u00a0has ruined himself. His near delirious rants, preposterous claims,\u00a0the insults flying, the ignorance of his advisors all\u00a0fully displayed on\u00a0the world stage.\u00a0His rage, greed, and arrogance have brought him to comic levels. But his\u00a0money and his bad-actor friends and advisors remain. And so does he prime minister. In any\u00a0other country he would have long been rejected by the electorate forthwith. But as long as America says, yes, Erdo\u011fan remains. So sad for\u00a0Turkey to be the lapdog of the likes of Erdo\u011fan, Fethullah Gulen and America. So sad for Islam to be linked with these two masters of deceit.\u00a0So sad for the Turkish people to be harnessed to the moral corruption that is Turkish politicized Islam.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Judas\u00a0betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Erdogan betrayed a lot more for a lot more. Treachery has always been\u00a0a good\u00a0business,\u00a0indeed an American specialty\u00a0in their CIA-driven foreign policy. And it perfectly suits Erdo\u011fan\u2019s two-faced description of \u201chis\u201d Turkey as an \u201cadvanced democracy.\u201d\u00a0But now\u00a0he stands alone,\u00a0babbling nonsense, rich, naked to the world and disgraced. One wonders if he even knows this much. What price this glory? What\u00a0price this treason?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and to-morrow,<\/b><\/em>
\nCreeps in this petty pace from day to day,<\/em>
\nTo the last syllable of recorded time;<\/em>
\nAnd\u00a0all our yesterdays have lighted fools<\/em>
\nThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!<\/em>
\nLife’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,<\/em>
\nThat struts and frets his hour upon the stage,<\/em>
\nAnd then is heard no more. It is a tale<\/em>
\nTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,<\/em>
\nSignifying\u00a0nothing.<\/em><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

MACBETH<\/b><\/em>, William Shakespeare<\/p>\n

\"lucky<\/p>\n

Cem Ryan, Ph.D.\u00a0<\/b>
\n25 August 2013
\nIstanbul<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NOTES:<\/b><\/p>\n

* According to the Merriman-Webster Dictionary, a \u201cbad actor\u201d is an unruly,
\nturbulent, or contentious individual.<\/p>\n

** See Claire Berlinski\u2019s excellent article, Who Is Fethullah G\u00fclen?<\/i><\/b> in\u00a0<\/i>City Journal, Autumn 2012.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"shouts\"<\/p>\n

TO READ JAMES RYAN’S SHOUTS
\n<\/span>CLICK BELOW LINK<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He bores me, this Erdo\u011fan. 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 Erdo\u011fan, like all the others, deserves it. Now the sharks are gathering. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":76192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,34,922],"tags":[9229,1018],"class_list":["post-76185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","category-usa","category-world","tag-fethullah-gulen","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}