Legitimizing terrorism

The oldie journalist underlined in bold characters the bitter reality, while trying to underscore just the opposite. The Nevroz message from Abdullah Öcalan, as well as the death sentence that was converted to an enforced life sentence in İmralı island prison, which was read aloud to masses at the Diyarbakır square, he said, was a development that legitimized the chieftain. The “press conference” at the headquarters of the separatist gang up in the Kandil Mountains of northern Iraq, he said, was a development legitimizing the gang.

Of course, many people shared the same assessment, but the oldie journalist was courageous enough – although he aimed to say something totally different – to put it in writing: The government is in the process of legitimizing the terrorist leader, and the gang…

Turkey has an overall democratization problem. The Kurdish problem is just a portion of a bigger problem. If we may say so, it is one of the tips of the iceberg. This gross democratization problem provided the gang an excellent breeding ground, that’s obvious. The policy of denial and rejection of the post-1980 era further aggravated the problems and helped the gang become a kind of huge industry. With its political extensions in Turkey and Europe, the network of crime that the gang established not only became a killing machine, but also a multi-billion-dollar gigantic industry.

Was it a coincidence that one of the three women killed in a Paris office was the coordinator of the “business” of the gang? Who killed those three women? Turkey, France, or the gang? If such a heinous development had happened in Turkey, the entire world would accuse Ankara of summary executions. Why were the Paris killings a common crime?

Journalists should, of course, pursue news. No one can say anything against the journalists who flocked under that tent in the gang’s Kandil den, to become witnesses of the declaration of the gang’s withdrawal from Turkey without laying down their arms. From what is reported by journalists from the mouth of the “commander” of the terrorists, apparently the gang would even be “tolerated” by the government to carry whatever heavy guns it possessed outside Turkish territory.

On the other hand, scores of journalists writing or working for pro-gang publications, or those who have just have been to Kandil or interviewed terrorists in the pursuit of journalistic goals, are still behind bars on grounds of collaborating with terrorists.

Every year we witnessed a military buildup in the areas adjacent to Iraq, Syria and Iran, as part of preparedness against the surge in separatist violence in the spring and summer months. Now, there is military traffic just the other way. The commanders of the Turkish military – many former commanders are in prison for membership or even leadership of a “terrorist gang” – are saying there was nothing extraordinary, just an ordinary shift of duty. Journalists reporting such rather odd developments were accused of “baseless reporting,” as if photographs of loaded military trucks heading west did not accompany reports.

Have you noticed? It is becoming a fashion to skip all together, or to celebrate with just 2-3 minute long ceremonies, the important republican anniversaries such as Victory Day or the day commemorating the opening of Parliament? Using the word “Turk” or having a Turkish flag is becoming seen as a sort of racism, or at least of obsessive nationalism.

Shall we sit back, close our eyes and think with clear brains about who are the terrorists and who are the collaborators?