The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, who initially appeared under the guise of Turkization is starting to increasingly reveal his Kemalist side. It seems like Demirtaş, who was able to garner the support of leftists in Istanbul's upscale Cihangir neighborhood through this guise, is aiming for the votes of Kemalists, which is evident by the expressions he makes during the election process. There is not a single person who does not know about the HDP's secularist line. Nobody was expecting a pledge oriented towards the conservative voters from the HDP. However, everyone deserves to expect that a political movement which claims that it is becoming Turkish is more respectful towards the values of Muslims. At a time when even the Republican People's Party (CHP) is pushing its secularist approach into the background, the hardline Kemalism of the 1930s comes to mind with Demirtaş's remark: “Muslims go to Kaaba to become pilgrims, the Jews go to Jerusalem. Religious beliefs have headquarters. Yes, I am not saying that this is a religious belief, but Taksim is essential for workers.” The only thing that distinguishes Selahattin Demirtaş's remarks from Republic-era poet Kemalettin Kamu's words is the fact that it does not rhyme: “Neither miracle nor charm, neither spider nor moss, Çankaya tops it for us; let the Kaaba belong to the Arabs.” The mindset is the same.
Demirtaş showed a document when he was explaining the justification for abolishing Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet). Mehmet Kaya Kurt, whose signature was on the document, has served as the Deputy President of the Religious Affairs High Council between 2000 and 2002. Take note of the date. Mehmet Nuri Yılmaz, who served as the President of the Diyanet during the February 28 post-modern coup period, had an advisor by the name of Colonel Oğuz Kalelioğlu. Apparently, it was claimed that no document would be approved without his supervision. Don't ask how the HDP would know about this. With his practices, Colonel Kalelioğlu became the source of inspiration for Sırrı Süreyya Önder's Beynelmilel movie.
Demirtaş's Kemalist disposition and tendency to start the religion debates of the 1930s have actually scared me. Following the debates in the '30s, the call to prayer was made in Turkish instead of Arabic. I wonder if Demirtaş is running after the Kurdish call to prayer. It would not be surprising if Demirtaş forms a coalition government with their beloved partner CHP; we would be hearing “God is greatest” from the Kocatepe Mosque's minaret in Ankara, and “Xweda mezin e” from the Ulu Mosque's minarets in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır.
++++++++++++++++
There is not a single person who does not know the fact that the Gülen Movement now works for the HDP. You know about Ekrem Dumanlı's – the editor-in-chief of Zaman, the flagship newspaper of the Gülen Movement – visit to Gültan Kışanak, the mayor of the Metropolitan Municipality of Diyarbakır, where he entered the building from the back door. As much as they had attempted to assign different meanings to the visit, it was insignificant. Everyone can visit whomever they want and everyone can vote for whoever they want to vote for. That's not what I'm trying to say here. If you remember, Dumanlı had responded to TV host Cüneyt Özdemir's question about who they would vote for on CNN Türk by saying that he asked Fethullah Gülen, the leader of the Gülen Movement. Therefore, the issue of where Dumanlı goes and who he meets with is none of our business; it is only Gülen's. In other words, the instigator of the meeting between Dumanlı and Kışanak was Gülen himself. No problems up to here. However, when I heard of the news about this meeting, I recalled Fethullah Gülen's interview entitled “My little world” with Zaman daily in March 1992. The interview later on was published as a book. I hunted for the book and found it, but was unable to find what I was looking for. It turns out; they had destroyed its first edition. Yasemin Asan came to my rescue and gave me the newspapers where the interviews were published. In response to a question about why he did not visit Said Nursi, he says: “Everyone who is born in Erzurum is inherently a nationalist and a Pan-Turanist. I personally made a fuss about the fact that Bediüzzaman Said Nursi did not originate from Anatolia and kept this thought as a regret within me. And there, it is precisely this thought that obstructed me from meeting with Bediüzzaman.” Gülen explains how this thought had escaped his mind through a dream: “I was in another globe. And all of a sudden, a globe-full of cattle started to run towards me. I was all alone. All of a sudden Imam Ali and Bediüzzaman appeared. Imam Ali was holding a scrap of papers and gave these to Bediüzzaman. When I woke up, that feeling and thought had escaped me.”
I don't know which globe's cattle had an effect on Dumanlı's meeting with Kışanak, but why did Fethullah Gülen, who did not visit Said Nursi solely because of his Kurdish identity, send Dumanlı to Gültan Kışanak? Because Gülen's “Little World” had now grown. He has schools in over 160 countries throughout the world and he himself resides in the U.S., the superpower and gendarmerie of the world.
“Pro-Iran in Syria, murderer in Gaza,
Buddhist in Myanmar, Zionist in Palestine,
Rebel in Gezi Park, pro-Vatican in terms of toleration”
We should not be surprised about what is going on in Turkey, the meeting between Dumanlı and Kışanak and the fact that he works for the HDP.
+++++++++++
Different laws for Sezer and Erdoğan
The Gülen-affiliated media being in the first place, some media outlets portray a person who has sworn at President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a victim almost on a daily basis. Turkey is actually a quite intriguing country. Strictly speaking, I did not have the opportunity to research other countries. But in Turkey, there are different regulations for insults directed at Atatürk, the President, and ordinary citizens. And then there is the ruling case created for Turkey's 10th president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, by the Court of Appeal's General Assembly for Criminal Matters in 2009. Columnist Abdurrahman Dilipak had written a critical piece about Sezer, who imposed the headscarf ban in public institutions. There are no insults anywhere in the piece. The only sentence open to debate is “Let him gloat.” Bağcılar 2nd Criminal Court has returned an acquittal for Dilipak. The 9th Penal Department of the Court of Appeals had approved this ruling in 2009. The Public Prosecutor of the Court of Appeals had objected the ruling and the Assembly of Criminal Matters reversed Dilipak's acquittal with its 2009/252 ruling dated 03.11.2009. I don't know what those who defend the ones who insult President Erdoğan think about this ruling, but if Sezer's ruling case from 2009 was to be taken as a precedent by the Court of Appeals, serious consequences would be awaiting the foul-mouthed fellows.
