Obsession

A fight is continuing on the Islamist flank and most people outside political Islam have serious comprehension problems as regards to why all this dust and storm. Claims and counterclaims appear to be equally aloof or at least confusing for most people. Obviously what’s going on was not a fight for better service in any field to the nation, but rather a product of a power sharing problem. The elected prime minister believed since he received votes from one in every two Turks in the last election, there was no need to continue sharing power with a cleric in self-exile in Pennsylvania and his gang of merry men. The cleric, on the other hand, did not accept being sidelined by the premier and waging an existential fight.

Was it indeed so? As bad as it has been, we might not have yet seen the worse in the fight between the elected and the non-elected Islamists. One Islamist writer as tall, bold and bald and arrogant as the prime minister wrote this week a very interesting article in one of those newspapers loyal to the government. Reading through the article, it indeed is impossible not to pity Turkey and cry how this beautiful country deserved such a mentality.

Now, according to that writer Turkey and the government of the absolute ruler Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was facing a very serious conspiracy designed, manipulated or at least supported by the usual suspects: the Israelis, Americans and the British, and also by the Vatican and Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian… Don’t say “what a strange bed fellows!” If the Islamist conspiracy script writer said so, most probably his master, the prime minister has long been of that opinion.

According to the writer, the aim was through some blackmail dossiers and video or voice recordings existing around 50 supporters of the fraternity of the Pennsylvania cleric in Parliament would be enhanced to an approximate 75-vote strong separate political establishment, strong enough to force the postponement of elections.

The writer continued claiming the new political formation loyal to the cleric would not stay at their approximate 8 percent strength, but would have around 30-35 percent electoral support by forging a former Motherland Party (ANAP) style coalition of liberals, moderate leftists and pious conservatives.

This “job” was to be completed between November and December and by now the premier, foreign minister, intelligence chief and head of the İHH Islamist charity would all be in prison by now, the writer claimed. Obviously, he was reflecting the obsessive analysis valid at some high places in Ankara.

Hold on… The writer had a striking in between the lines claim also. President Abdullah Gül and Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç were supportive of this conspiracy, but after they were shown documents revealing the big conspiracy and the “parallel state” wanted to be created, they changed their positions and withdrew their support from the fraternity.

Then came the final but very interesting claim of the tall, bold, bald and very opinionated writer of the newspaper, which over the past many decades under different names has been disseminating enmity against secularists and secular governance: Within this month a new trial bigger than Ergenekon would be launched, but this time the number one defendant will not be someone like General Çetin Doğan, but he will be the “Hodja of Pennsylvania.”

The writer claimed that aware of the grave developments, the “parallel structure” might not suffice with bombarding the agenda with video and voice recordings, forged documents but undertake some very serious terrorist attacks on key Turkish and Kurdish personalities, as well as in order to distract attention from some leading Alevites and some key figures of the fraternity. He concluded with saying Americans, Israelis and the British were uneasy seeing their plans did not work this time.

Unfortunately, this is the obsessive mentality ruling Turkey today.