Çağaptay Uses Foreign Policy in Smear Campaign Against Gülen

Observers have said the article, published on Feb. 25, seriously distorts realities surrounding the ongoing Ergenekon probe -which aims to expose the deep state nested within the military, academia and the business world- and targets the faith-based civil society movement inspired by Fethullah Gülen.

Though the article contains numerous allegations and accusations against Gülen personally and his movement as well as the Turkish government, Çağaptay does not provide a single piece of evidence to support his arguments.

In a piece titled “What's Really Behind Turkey's Coup Arrests?” Çağaptay claims that the power behind the launching of the Ergenekon probe is Gülen. “The only quality that ties together all of those arrested is their opposition to the AKP [Justice and Development Party (AK Party)] government and the Gülen movement. Zekeriya Öz, the chief prosecutor leading the Ergenekon case, and Ramazan Akyürek, the head of the police's domestic intelligence branch, as well as other powerful people in the police, are thought by some to be Gülen sympathizers,” the analyst alleges.

However, what apparently infuriated Çağaptay is the detention of about 50 retired and active duty members of the military on Feb. 22 on charges of plotting a coup. This was the highest profile crackdown ever carried out on the military. The detainees are accused of involvement in military coup plots titled Balyoz (Sledgehammer) and Kafes (Cage). The plots include blowing up mosques during Friday prayers, setting off explosives in a museum during a visit by young students and turning stadiums into open-air prisons to hold people who challenge coup troops.

The Ergenekon probe is believed to present a historic opportunity for Turkey to confront its dark past and call to account coup instigators -- be they members of the military or civilians. Çağaptay's piece caused disappointment and surprise among many Turkish and foreign observers, who termed it “cheap conspiracy.”

“This piece is merely an example of a distortion of facts and misinformation. It's very biased. The Ergenekon probe is of the utmost importance for Turkish democracy,” stated Orhan Kemal Cengiz (President of Human Rights Agenda Association). Cengiz also expressed his disappointment with Foreign Policy for publishing such a controversial piece that lacks any proof for its arguments.

“It raises eyebrows to see such a piece in the international arena. How could Foreign Policy publish that piece? I wonder how such a cheap conspiracy made its way into a serious publication. Çağaptay's piece has no depth. It is filled with groundless accusations. It does not include a single statement with veracity,” Cengiz said. Çağaptay was not immediately available for comment despite repeated attempts by Sunday's Zaman to reach him.

In his piece, Çağaptay argues that the government's intention with the Ergenekon probe is to intimidate the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), rather than proceed with an indictment against high-ranking officers. At this point, however, the analyst fails to inform his readers that civilian prosecutors have thus far prepared three separate indictments against Ergenekon suspects that amount to several thousands of pages. The suspects are accused of establishing an armed organization with the ulterior motive of overthrowing a democratically elected government and Parliament.

İhsan Bal, head of the Terrorism and Security Studies Unit at the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization (USAK), indicated that military preparations for a coup d'état and documents detailing such preparations have been verified by civilian and military prosecutors.

“All [coup] documents have been proven genuine. Simultaneous operations [against Ergenekon suspects] have been launched. Are all prosecutors engaged in a conspiracy? That is ridiculous. Which of Çağaptay's allegations should I respond to? What we see is that even serious publications can make mistakes,” Bal added.

One of many controversial points included in Çağaptay's piece is his effort to link the Gülen movement to the AK Party: “A mountain has moved in Turkish politics. All shots against the military are now fair game, including those below the belt. The force behind this dramatic change is the Fethullah Gülen Movement (FGH), an ultraconservative political faction that backs the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). … It is a conservative movement aiming to reshape secular Turkey in its own image, by securing the supremacy of Gülen's version of religion over politics, government, education, media, business, and public and personal life.”

However, Gülen stressed on various occasions that he does not harbor any political ambitions and does not throw his support behind any political party. In an interview with Foreign Policy in 2008, for example, Gülen said: “I have never had, nor will I ever have, any [political] ambitions. The only thing on which I have always set my heart is being able to gain God's good pleasure and, therefore, trying to make him known correctly and loved by humanity.”

According to Çağaptay, the Gülen movement controls the national police and its powerful domestic intelligence branch and exerts increasing influence on the judiciary. “Criticizing the Gülen movement … has become as taboo as assailing the military once was. Today, it is those who criticize the Gülen movement who get burned,” he remarks. The analyst's argument is, however, strongly opposed to by Michael Thumann, Die Zeit's Middle East bureau chief in İstanbul.

“The sentence regarding the Gülen movement and its control of the national police is very hard to substantiate. The idea that Gülen is behind [the Ergenekon probe] is preposterous. Nobody can tell to what extent. No single proof. Why should journalists not be interested in those coup plans without being on the payroll of someone?” he asked. Thumann also expressed disapproval of Çağaptay's opinion of the Taraf daily. In his piece, Çağaptay said, “Specifically, the officers were charged with authoring a 5,000-page memo that was later published in Taraf, a paper whose editorial policy is singularly dedicated to bashing the military.”

“I am very happy that Taraf exists. It is a good source for us. They cannot disclose their sources, of course, but for me it is a very important source as a foreign journalist here. It is a newspaper accused of being close to the government. [Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan was very angry when Taraf called him ‘Paşasinin Başbakani' [The Pasha's Prime Minister]. Çağaptay is entirely misrepresenting Taraf. Taraf is a newspaper which has driven the political process with its publication. It's important for freedom of the press in Turkey. Some people try to depict Taraf as a supporter of the government; that's a misrepresentation,” Thumann added.

Çağaptay also accuses “the Gülen-controlled parts” of the judiciary and police of illegally wiretapping those entangled in the Ergenekon case and subsequently leaking details of their intimate lives, such as infidelity, to pro-AK Party and pro-Gülen media in order to damage their reputations. Not surprisingly, the analyst does not point to any evidence to solidify his argument, nor does he mention the wiretapping of prominent figures from various circles by Ergenekon members. A police raid at an ultranationalist newsweekly in 2009 discovered sound recordings of phone conversations of the prime minister, several Cabinet members, journalists and mayors.

Furthermore, the analyst claims that the Gülen movement supported a coalition government led by the now-defunct Welfare Party (RP) in the late 1990s. Sources close to Gülen, however, strongly denied the claim.

Assessing Çağaptay's writing style, Alper Görmüş, a columnist from the Taraf daily, told Sunday's Zaman that they can see Çağaptay's fundamental characteristics in this article, too. When asked what he meant, he said Çağaptay puts forth claims but offers no evidence.

“We know him; it is very natural to see such articles be written in his militant writing style. But it is impossible to understand how a journal like Foreign Policy, which is highly concerned about the level of academic rigor the articles it publishes contain, can run such an article,” Görmüş noted.

Criticizing Foreign Policy's publication policy, Görmüş said it is clear that, following Sept. 11, fast-growing Islamophobia has replaced Americans' cool-headed demeanor. “In the 1960s Turkey had the goal of being a ‘small America.' Following the change in atmosphere that dominated American media and politics after Sept. 11, I wrote in my article that ‘Turkey could not become a small America but America has become a big Turkey.' It seems such a process is continuing in America as such an article managed to be published in Foreign Policy,” Görmüş concluded.

Twisting the facts

According to Emre Uslu, an analyst working with the Washington-based think tank The Jamestown Foundation, Çağaptay twists many facts to use them as a basis for his arguments in his piece.

“For example, he says police interrogated Türkan Saylan for allegedly plotting a coup from her death bed. However, no such thing occurred. Police searched Saylan's house and office after discovering that the NGO she was leading was being used as a means to infiltrate the military. I cannot understand how Foreign Policy published a piece that dramatizes an incident that never occurred,” Uslu said.

Professor Saylan, the founder of the Support for Modern Life Association (ÇYDD), died in May 2009 shortly after a police raid at her house and office as part of the Ergenekon probe. Evidence uncovered in the investigation has hinted that the ÇYDD may have served as a sub-unit of Ergenekon.

“Çağaptay also says the only quality that ties together professors Kemal Gürüz and Mehmet Haberal is their opposition to the AK Party government and the Gülen movement. However, no one can find a single word the two used against the Gülen movement before the launch of the Ergenekon probe. How does he derive an anti-Gülen position for the two professors?” Uslu asked.

Both Gürüz and Haberal were detained and later arrested last year on suspicion of links to Ergenekon. Gürüz was released pending trial while Haberal remains in a hospital for alleged health problems. “I would not expect such twists from an intelligent writer like Çağaptay and such a biased publication from Foreign Policy. The piece does not reflect the truth in Turkey. It has problems both in content and meaning,” Uslu added.

Not Çağaptay's first time disseminating misinformation

The analyst also attempted to misrepresent facts regarding the Ergenekon case with a highly controversial piece he wrote for the March 8 issue of Newsweek magazine. In his piece, titled “Turkey's Turning Point,” Çağaptay alleged that the AK Party and its ultraconservative allies in the Gülen movement, known as Gülenists, have been deploying friendly police agents to wiretap and arrest top military officers on coup charges.

The analyst sparked a heated debate in Turkey with his article, with many writers calling on Newsweek readers to take Çağaptay's conflicting arguments with a grain of salt and take a deeper look into the various Turkish media outlets to gain a better understanding of the Ergenekon case.

In an op-ed he wrote for The Washington Post in February 2009, Çağaptay claimed that Turkey, under the AK Party's governance, was turning its back on the West and abandoning its commitments to US policy. In response to the analyst's assertion, a senior AK Party politician said Çağaptay's op-ed contained “grossly misleading information.”

In his latest piece for Newsweek, Çağaptay targeted Ergenekon prosecutors, calling them “Gülenists” who were arresting secular prosecutors who were investigating fundraising networks run by the Gülen movement and its connections to terrorists in Chechnya and Hamas.