Another Case of Sabotage
This was so with the murder of Professor Muammer Aksoy and Professor Bahriye Ucok. The same happened to Hurriyet's former editor in chief Cetin Emec and, of course, to journalist-writer Ugur Mumcu.
All have staunchly defended secularism and Ataturk's ideals and all have been the victims of assassination plots which have created furor in Turkey, especially among the secularist groups, and drawn enmity against even moderate Islamists...
After each assassination the intellectuals and writers of our country have pointed the finger at Islamists, and even at the Khomeini regime in Iran.
All the assassinations, however, remained mystery murders and were never solved. The authorities failed to find a single suspect. Years later several people started questioning all this, saying the killings may well have been the work of those who wanted to prevent democratization in Turkey and continue the regime of plunder, corruption and irregularities in the name of preserving the Republic...
The debate after the Susurluk crash, in which a mobster and a police official were killed and a politician injured, showed the close links between politicians, state officials and the underworld. It became clear that a group of extreme right wing mobsters had been used the by the state to do their "dirty work" and that such people were also used for mystery murders. No one has got to the bottom of the Susurluk scandal and, on the contrary, people have preferred to cover up the case.
A parliamentary investigation, which was hampered by the negative attitudes of several state organizations charged with national security and defense, still showed that there were some hit men being used by some officials against the "enemies" of the state. These people were involved in assassinations which later became "mystery killings."
In recent days there have been several controversial incidents involving Islamists. The controversy surrounding Virtue Party Deputy Merve Kavakci, who lost her Turkish citizenship after trying to enter Parliament wearing a headscarf, and the attempt by the chief prosecutor to have her arrested in the middle of the night after a raid on her home is still very new. The arrest of moderate Islamist Mehmet Kutlular, who claimed that the killer quake of August 17 was a divine warning, and he was released from prison only on Wednesday. We have watched with disgust while some people try link the murder of Kislali to the articles he wrote on Kutlular and Muslim community leader Fethullah Gülen. Yes, the timing of the assassination of Ahmet Taner Kislali is very meaningful as it coincides with the Kavakci and Kutlular incidents, but let us point out that instead of suggesting that Islamists were behind this assassination we should try to think along the lines of people wanting more friction and tension in Turkey having staged the murder to exploit the recent debates targeting Islamists...
Those who killed Kislali are part of a grand sabotage scheme that is designed to hurt Turkey's European Union vocation, to damage Turkey's image before the Istanbul summit of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). It is also designed to hamper the democratization process in Turkey.
But people are not naive. With the exception of a few prejudiced writers and intellectuals our columnists, thinkers and leading personalities will realize what has happened to Kislali is very similar to what has happened in many other cases which remain "mystery killings."
Those who say they want to preserve the secularist system and are prepared to struggle for it have all the state resources at their disposal. Now they should use their resources to the full and find the assassins. But we have this terrible feeling that, once again, they will be unable to get to the bottom of this case simply because Kislali is yet another victim of the sabotage of democratization and the push to move Turkey into the 21st century as a civilized country.
Those who took Kislali from us and then tried to put the blame on Muslims should have realized that this trick would not work in Turkey and should never have killed such a nice person.
Ahmet Taner Kislali was a family friend, a bright intellectual and a first class gentleman. He was well respected by even those who did not share his views. Those who killed him took away from us a valuable treasure. They should not get away with it.
TURKISH DAILY NEWS
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