Some People Want to Avoid the Real Issue

For weeks they kept us busy with the arrest of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist leader Abdullah Öcalan in Kenya and his arrival in Turkey to stand trial on charges of treason. Then we had to live through a bout of the Merve Kavakçi incident; the pro-Islamist deputy of the Virtue Party refused to take off her headscarf and was therefore prevented from taking her parliamentary oath. In between, we were fed the artificial rift between the Democratic Left Party (DSP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) before they formed a coalition partnership Then, of course we had the trial of Öcalan itself which kept the public busy.

But just as we put all these events behind us and hoped we could concentrate on some real issues facing our country, we ended up discussing a new scandal which involved the police department and phone tapping. The public became aware that illegal phone tapping is widely used in Turkey by the state and by some private groups and persons and that no matter what you do you cannot prevent this But again, just as we hoped to put this scandal behind us we now see that Fethullah Gülen, a leading moderate Muslim preacher who promotes tolerance, understanding and goodwill in our society, has come under massive fire from the co-called secularist establishment in Turkey, creating yet another serious controversy Two separate recordings of Gülen's meeting with his followers have been given to the press by "certain state circles." In essence, the recordings show Gülen I encouraging his followers not to expose themselves to the secularist establishment and to try to get along with it.

This a regarded by the secularist establishment as a sinister plan to sneak into the secularist system and destroy it from within

Gülen warned a group of his followers in the recordings, "If they come out early, the wold will squash their heads. They will make Muslims relive the events in Algeria again."

The prosecutors who are filing charges against him apparently believe that Gülen was warning his followers that it they rose up before they were fully prepared, they would face defeat.

So, now we will spend the next few days or even weeks dealing with Gülen and his grand plan to destroy he secularist system in Turkey.

Meanwhile, once again the real issues in Turkey like democratization, amendments to the laws on political parties and elections, legislating judicial reforms and improving the human rights image of Turkey will all be pushed to a side.

What those who really want to preserve the secularist system in Turkey do not seem to understand is that you cannot protect this system with repression and police measures. On the contrary, democracy, openness and transparency are all real remedies for radicalism.

If we manage to transform Turkey into a viable democracy then we have nothing to fear. Then no one can hide behind the state system if they illegally eavesdrop and no one can really challenge the basic values of the Republic. But the more you use repression and intimidation as a weapon, the more you will see Turkey being pushed into a political and social impasse.

TURKISH DAILY NEWS