Senior ruling party exec reveals ‘int’l conspiracy’

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Bülent Gedikli, deputy chairman of the AKP, speaks in Parliament. Gedikli said many famous names were members of ‘the Neocon-Ergenekon team’ against Turkey. DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

A senior ruling party official said he believed there was a drive by a “Neocon-Ergenekon brotherhood” against Turkey to discredit and unseat the government by spreading propaganda to show it had become a “civilian dictatorship.”

Bülent Gedikli, deputy chairman of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), suggested yesterday the mounting international criticism of Turkey’s rights record, especially the incarceration of journalists, aimed to tarnish Turkey’s image and put it in par with Arab countries ruled by dictators. American writer Paul Auster’s recent criticism of Turkey was a part of that, he said.

“People are rising up against dictators in Arab countries. They are trying to adapt the same concept to Turkey. They will put Turkey in the line,” he said in remarks to the semi-official Anatolia news agency.
Gedikli named Israeli President Shimon Peres as the “coach of the anti-AKP team,” which he likened to a football club.

A team in 3-5-2 formation

He said the squad also included jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan as the goalkeeper; German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in defense; Mehmet Haberal, Doğu Perinçek, Mustafa Balbay, Tuncay Özkan and Yalçın Küçük, all high-profile suspects in the probe into Ergenekon, the purported network that allegedly sought to plunge Turkey into chaos and pave the way for a military coup, in the midfield; and Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Peace and Democracy (BDP) co-leader Selahattin Demirtaş as forwards.

“The Neocon-Ergenekon team is trying to destabilize Turkey. They want to create chaos, fear and crisis. Their tenet is to erode the legitimate government and if possible, to topple it,” Gedikli said.
“‘Civilian dictatorship’ is their watchword. They link anything that is being said and done to a civilian dictatorship. That’s how Paul Auster got involved.”

He claimed “financial oligarchs” headed the club. “They are conducting financial operations and interest-rate lobbying. But the AKP government knocked out the crisis lobby,” he said.

Gedikli’s comments were the latest in a war of words triggered by an interview Auster gave to the daily Hürriyet in which he said he was refusing to visit Turkey and China because they imprisoned journalists. The remarks earned him a rebuke by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and applause from the main opposition.