Adjusting politics and, in fact, crossing the line and designing politics, is a very bad habit which some have great difficulty giving up. They still think they are going to be able to shape the government under the guise of democracy like they did 10-20 decades ago. Relentlessly, they are trying to keep this power in their hands and continue this habit.
They think they still hold the monopoly power to form governments, and then oust them, shape cabinets, promote some politicians while sacrificing others, and divide the state's political and economic power.
Turkey's political history is actually a history of such “formers of governments." The people were never the true actors of the “democracy on the outside and Baathist administration on the inside." Whenever they tried, the process was always prevented through military coups and executions. Despite being democratically-elected, regardless of their political background, we have a political tradition that punishes its people the moment they want a share of the government's power.
This is because the power we call government was awarded to an “oligarch team." Such that even our political parties were under their control and instruction. While they existed, it was impossible for politics, for the people's government to manage, change or transform anything. Now this field of power is changing places, causing a “shift in the internal axis." There is a single reason for all the infighting for the last decade and that is change.
Aydın Doğan has always been the symbolic name of the tradition to adjust politics. He was never the single power, but all sanctions, instructions, marshaling were conducted through him and managed through his media outlets. Again, he was the spokesman of the Gezi riots, the Dec. 17 coup attempt and the most recent “counterrevolution" started through the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP)/PKK.
Aydın Doğan was pushed to the frontline like a suicide bomber in an attempt to use him to shoot the last bullet. A capital power, a media power taking a place at the center of such a fight and, in fact, being one of its main headquarters, especially during such a period, requires courage.
This power needs to predict that it may be defeated in this great battle. The area of power on the inside as well as the support of its organic ties on the outside may not be enough to give it victory.
Since he always won until now, this war which he has been carrying on blinded by his confidence, has for the first time gone much beyond the dimensions of a political fight. This time he went so stray, as to be remembered in association with terror against his country, which is facing threats affecting its state, nation, past and future. He collaborated with circles posing a “close threat" for Turkey; he tried to beat the country and state through them, in a sense, blackmailing the country.
But Turkey has changed; its power apparatuses have changed; both the country and nation's areas of interest have changed; its state philosophy has changed. From now on, this is going to be the course of change, because a geographical change is in question. If we take it a little further, the global power map is changing with the fields of power becoming varied at full speed. The price of standing up against the state with old habits at such a time, poisoning the people with his own means of power may be quite hefty.
That strict oligarchic structure no longer has the power to control Turkey or the region. Turkey is going through such tribulations that it is either going to fall apart or re-establish itself as a much more powerful state than before. This is where the severity of the fight becomes clear. Hence, the fight with Aydın Doğan at its center is a multinational battle.
There is no need to remember the Feb. 28 coup. We do not need to list the suffering they caused the conservatives of this country. But taking place in all stages of the latest battle, providing support to the ousting of the government through the Gezi riots and terrorism, collaborating with the actors of the Dec. 17 coup attempt to turn Turkey into Egypt, and finally bringing the game they set up through the HDP to the point of advocating the PKK's attacks, has turned into a dramatic file for Aydın Doğan.
The media group which has for years been priding itself as “mainstream media" has now become a marginal structure dependent on Kurdish nationalism, that not only supports the HDP, but also tries to instill sympathy for the PKK and other terrorist organizations. They can no longer be part of the “mainstream." They will be associated with terrorism, terrorist organizations, the division of Turkey and ideological circles. It won't be long before they start paying the price for taking such a stance and perspective, estranging itself from Turkey's backbone.
Aydın Doğan, who, after all this was stated, made public announcements with exaggerated sensitivity, is still under the influence of the strategic blindness caused by his self-confidence. The Gezi riots and Dec. 17 operations all failed with the final attempt through the PKK yielding no different result. So what will they do now? Which method will they try? It doesn't seem like there are many options remaining? Can such a grave sin be forgiven with those teary statements? Can it be wiped out of the nation's memory? I don't think so.
The statement Aydın Doğan published in Saturday's Hürriyet daily was not like the previous ones. It was like the letter Sedat Simavi, the founder of Hürriyet daily, wrote to Turkey's eighth president, Turgut Özal. It was a kind of challenge while at the same time refuting the president. I don't know what point there is to refuting claims of forming and toppling governments, and his conversation with the president, but as long as he can't change the fact that he was involved particularly in the Feb. 28 and Mesut Yılmaz cases, it seems impossible for him to clear his name with these statements.
You have to read the conversation between our newspaper's owners Ahmet Albayrak and Nuri Albayrak and Aydın Doğan published in Yeni Şafak today. Aydın Doğan tells how he ousted the Refah-Yol coalition by the Welfare (RP) and True Path (DYP) parties. It's no hearsay. The meeting date, location, participants and witnesses are all evident.
Let's see what he has to say about this. The man who said, “I saw that they were trying to eliminate us, so we destroyed Refah-Yol," tried to do the same thing for the last few years. It didn't work, he couldn't succeed this time. He couldn't do it in spite of all his partnerships and alliances. This time nobody fell to their hands and knees in the face of threats and intimidation. Hence, the PKK stepped in with its bullets. This time the greatest sin of all was committed. Ousting the government via the PKK's bullets. The country is now questioning this.
This is a time when those who do not consider themselves from Turkey will lose. Unless you determine your political plans, economic calculations and personal relationships around “being from Turkey," you will lose.
Aydın Doğan is struggling to give the impression that he has cut all ties with the parallel state, the Gülen Movement, led by Fethullah Gülen, who is living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. The days that the managers of the movement-run Zaman daily had Hürriyet publish headlines to their liking are still fresh in memories.
When the Doğan Group's publications ceased, HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş and the party cowered. As the HDP's silence grew, in other words, as belief that the HDP is actually a part of the PKK's war strategy began to spread, Aydın Doğan started panicking about being caught in the same frame. They made their final attempt at shaping the government. But the oligarchic interventions had come to an end. They hadn't seen this coming.
Mr. Aydın, don't place too much faith in the HDP's nationalism. Take a look at the tendencies in the region and around the world. See the identities that are growing stronger. Succeeding through nationalism, especially in this region, has become history. You need to start seeing that the HDP's nationalism is interbedded with the PKK's terrorism and that this situation is also dragging you into that chaos.
Do not trust outside power centers. Be careful, those power centers have always been incapable of determining Turkey's inner dynamics for some time now. Endeavoring to get Turkey to fall to its knees from the inside, blackmailing with terrorism, civil war plots, no longer have takers in Turkey other than a small segment.
