The thing he cannot tolerate is the law

It is not a very surprising situation that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stormed out of the hall during a ceremony in the Council of State while the Head of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations, Professor Metin Feyzioğlu, was speaking. The prime minister walked out saying, “No such rudeness can happen.” Feyzioğlu was speaking on the occasion of the 146th anniversary of the establishment of the Council of State in Ankara.

Normally, the punishment of saying unpleasant words during a meeting is given by the prime minister afterward. He generally deals with it for one or two days, then he finds another topic for himself to get angry at.

This time, he was not able to wait until the end of the meeting. The only difference between Saturday’s, May 10, ceremony compared to others has been just this.

The rest is what we all know: “Take off your robe; enter politics,” etc.

The prime minister has an anger management issue, but his even bigger issue is he has no tolerance for criticism. He has a habit of defining words against his practices or the government’s as “rudeness and insult.”

According to him, criticizing the prime minister is the same as “insulting.” The content of the speech, in this sense, does not matter at all.

As a matter of fact, any neutral observer reading Prof. Feyzioğlu’s speech will have difficulty finding which part of the speech was perceived as an insult.

As gathered from the stories in papers, the prime minister was angry at Feyzioğlu’s conveying of the complaints he said were communicated to him from the container city in Van.

Yes, he staged his reaction right at that moment, but we should also see that it was the result of a buildup. Those words about the victims of the earthquake in Van were a catalyzer in the exploding of the prime minister’s nerves, were being strained since the beginning of the speech; that’s all.

The actual topic the prime minister is angry at is the bringing up of the issues he has been ignoring lately, such as the separation of powers, such as the rule of law.

He was angry at Haşim Kılıç for this reason; he exploded at Feyzioğlu for this reason.

Because, these are the most important topics the prime minister can no longer tolerate: the rule of law, separation of powers, independence of the judiciary, etc.

He perceives these concepts as threats to his own rule and absolutely does not like them to be talked about. Because, he knows that if one day in this country, rule of law and independence of the judiciary were to be truly established, then he would not be able to do any of the things he is doing today.

He made a fool of everybody

Former Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan showed a document when he took the floor in Parliament while the motion to investigate himself was being debated. While he was waving the paper in his hand, he was saying, “Yes, Reza Zarrab bought the watch, but I paid for it. The guarantee is on my name.”
To tell the truth, I was thinking the document Çağlayan was waving in his hand was the bank transaction note showing he had paid the cost of the watch to Zarrab.

For this reason, I made a call to him, asking him to send me the document so that I would print it here in this column.

However, it turns out to be not like that.

I learned the secret about the document from a news story published in daily Hürriyet.

It turns out to be the paper he was waving in his hand in the Parliament was the watch’s bill! On the bill’s address section, the name says Murat Yılmaz and the address was for a house in Bodrum, a southwestern popular resort.

Doğan News Agency (DHA) reporters researched the address and found out that Yılmaz, 38 years old, was living in that accommodation for three years. And Yılmaz was the captain of Zarrab’s boat.

Now, I am really very curious about this: Why was ex-minister Çağlayan waving that paper at the podium in Parliament when he was saying he paid for the watch? Because, it is absolutely obvious that according to the bill, the person who paid for this watch is not Çağlayan!

Could it be he thought about it like this? “I will take the floor, wave a paper around and say that I paid for the watch; everybody will think that was a bank receipt and I will be rid of the accusation.”

Mr. Çağlayan, I am sorry but it is a shame that you tried to make fools of all of us!

Now, in order to cleanse this shame, come on, send the bank receipt that you say you paid to Zarrab showing the money transfer and those receipts that show you have paid the customs tax on the watch, so that everybody will see…