Altan brothers and Nazlı Ilıcak: A love novel

Kemal Okuyan, soL columnist and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey, writes on the three journalists who were recently sentenced to life in prison over aiding Gülen network, blamed for the 2016 failed coup
Wednesday, 21 February 2018 04:26

Kemal Okuyan, soL columnist and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey, wrote on the three journalists who were on Friday sentenced to life in prison on charges of aiding the CIA-based Gülen network, led by US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, who was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s former ally, and is blamed for orchestrating the attempted coup of July 15, 2016.

Gülenist liberal Ahmet Altan, the former editor-in-chief of Taraf newspaper, and his younger brother, journalist and academic Mehmet Altan, were convicted of giving coded messages in a TV talk show a day before the failed July 15 military coup. Nazlı Ilıcak, another Gülenist journalist and former deputy of Islamist Virtue Party, was also handed life imprisonment.

Altan brothers and Ilıcak: A love novel

Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan, Nazlı Ilıcak... They were sentenced to life imprisonment. I don’t know if there is anyone saying "voila, justice." They were tried for neither knowingly and willfully deceiving the people, nor masterminding fabricated operation and lawsuit processes arm in arm with the AKP, nor Americanism, nor placing dynamite under secularism, nor liberal deviances. Life imprisonment was based on allegations such as attempting to overthrow the AKP rule, malice against the political power, conspiracy, and encouragement to the coup.

It's true that being involved in an antipopular coup attempt is really a serious crime.

Despite it being a crime, dimensions of the punishment given to the three former fanatic pro-AKP journalists cannot be explained with their involvement in this crime.

What's explanatory is the determination of the AKP, or rather Erdoğan, that "I won’t let you embrace anyone else." Erdoğan, for quite a long time, utters the threat that "I will destroy every other option you gaze on" to imperialist countries, which are trying to create an alternative for themselves, on one hand as, on the other hand, he says, "I will tend towards Russia if you jaw at me," to the US and other western centres.

In this sense, the punishment that Altan brothers and Nazlı Ilıcak received and the Afrin operation are one and the same thing. Some dub this as the "big war against imperialism," and commits the same crime with the Altan brothers and Ilıcak, who dreadfully deceived the people once.

Americanism, or more generally collaborationism with imperialism, is a fact that should continuously be fought against; however, this fight should also apply to those who want to monopolise Americanism.

Yes, the political power today says, "You are obliged to me," to the US. There is more than one way to say this. They made the statement that "I will serve you best," having travelled to the very place overseas 16 years ago when they were still at the beginning of the road, and gave insurance. This statement was repeated for every topic of a crisis in our region. As for now, nothing has changed, and the political power continues sending the message that "Ignore others, I'm enough for you" every day in every channel.

Another way to say, "You are obliged to me," is to destroy, or to show the capability to destroy, all other actors who yearn with "love to serve." Therefore, Abdullah Gül [former President of Turkey, known for his dispute with Erdoğan] has been made a scapegoat whenever he attempted to raise his head, implying that "If you insist, we can deal with him, too." Ahmet Altans acted as opinion designers of imperialist countries: they behaved as pro-Erdoğan when those countries pointed to Erdoğan, and became the critic of Erdoğan when they wanted to drive him into a corner.

There isn’t as a big difference between underlining and crossing out Erdoğan as thought to be!

However, Erdoğan too can do the same! He has shown that there is no big difference between underlining and crossing out Fethullah [Gülen, US-based Islamic preacher, a mastermind of 2016 failed coup] according to him. He also underlines and crosses out the Kurdish initiative from time to time; he hosts the leaders of the PYD [Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party, the political arm of the YPG] in Turkey one day, and then he says, "I'll terribly cross them out," the other day.

Americanist politics is liquidating other Americanists.

"I'll elope to someone else if you don’t indulge me."

"I'll kill whoever sets eye on you."

"I'll make you happy if you come back to me."

In other words, "Don’t take someone else, take me!"

The three journalists have become victims of this passion. Erdoğan has given them the brush-off, saying, "This is the end of those who market others but me." However, it’s their own crime; in any case, as both were underlining and crossing out, they were on the wrong side. And now, they were crossed out and even the pen was broken for them. Now, they will wait; they will wait for the big "war of heart" to bind to somewhere in a chaotic world.

There is no absolute harmony in this chaotic world; love is broken and hate is unmeasured but temporary. As for the fact that we refer to as Americanism, it is, in fact, the established order of the world, which is topped by the US for now, and its hierarchy and hegemons of this hierarchy.

Erdoğan is addicted to that established order; he is passionate in that established order, and wants to become a monopoly in the distributorship of that order in Turkey and the region.

The problem is that the established order is completely out of order, the competition has deepened, the topmost US has weakened, and everybody strives for finding sheltered lands on one hand as taking more shares on the other hand.

Under these circumstances, Erdoğan demands a very high price as saying, "Take me," to the US, and requests both protection and uniqueness for himself as well as a share that will satisfy the growing appetite of the Turkish capitalism.

Erdoğan has a difficult task, and the US, too... And the situation of the three journalists is not quite easy.

Of course, we didn’t expect a happy love story from the owners of a system in which billions of people are exploited and doomed to poverty and wars! Really, didn’t Ahmet Altan write a novel named "Cheating?"