The slander campaign against the Doğan Group

Following the detention of two executives of Doğan Holding, some newspapers and journalists started a smear campaign full of lies and distortions.

This is what they say:

“Erem Turgut Yücel and Yahya Üzdiyen, the two Doğan Holding executives taken under detention, cooperated with the Fetullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ) via a lawyer who is a member of FETÖ in order to save the holding from the tax fines imposed on it.”

This is an absolute lie. An absolute distortion.

This is the reality:

The date of the agreement with the lawyers who were arrested after July on charges of being FETÖ members? July 2012.

The date of the agreement reached with the Finance Ministry concerning the tax fine on the Doğan Group? June 2011.

In other words the agreement that is said to have been made with the said lawyers was done one year after the process concerning the tax fine was concluded.

How can there be a deal about an issue resolved a year before?

One should be a little bit careful when lying or distorting the facts.

Let’s talk about the Doğan Group making a deal with lawyers said to be from FETÖ.

The contract was done in 2012. In other words FETÖ was not yet FETÖ. In other words, its relationship with the government had not yet deteriorated. It was not yet clear at that time what kind of trouble FETÖ was.

It is one of the dozens of groups of lawyers with whom the Doğan group worked. They were given a few unimportant legal cases, and none of these cases ended in favor of Doğan.

These lawyers were arrested after July 15. But let’s not forget that their office was legally active until July 15 and that they had tons of clients.

It is therefore a complete lie and distortion to say that Doğan group has negotiated with FETÖ.

Whatever you do…

Those who position themselves totally against the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan show us all the injustices that are being made against us, all the smear campaigns and distortions and say, “See whatever you do, you are not going to get along with them; you will not gain their sympathy.”

But the problem is; we don’t have such a purpose. We are not fanatic militants; we will not become them. We are not polarizing; we are unifying. We are not tools of propaganda; we are journalists. We are not a side; we are a platform.

This will remain so, whether something bad happen to us or not, whether we get in trouble or not.

A compulsory explanation

The leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahçeli, sent me a watch as a present. I was then questioned in terms of ethical standards.

I was quoted an article in the Doğan publication principles that said “not one single present or material gain or privilege should be accepted from people and institutions that are subject to publication which might run against the profession’s traditions and ethics.”

And then I am being asked, “Is this not valid for Ahmet Hakan?”

Of course it is valid. But let me remind everyone that this watch was one of the watches that was commissioned to mark the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the MHP. It has no economic value, only a moral value.

I have strongly criticized Devlet Bahçeli in the past, and this gesture shows the tolerance he has in the face of criticism. That does not mean that I will stop criticizing him.