‘Top personality’ saved by Gülen

ORAL ÇALIŞLAR oral.calislar@radikal.com.tr

The leader of the “Hizmet” (Service) Community, Fethullah Gülen, posted a video where he said he saved a politician he defined as a “top personality” from being recorded in bed. Gülen made another claim at the end of the video, saying he would cite 10 more examples similar to this. He said he had been keeping them as a secret up to this day, and that he has proof and witnesses of the incident. A part of his now famous speech is this:

“A top personality, at a time… My phone rang years ago. They told me that he yielded to flesh and was on his way to meet a prostitute and at the same time it could be a trap. In the middle of the night, I called a friend in Turkey who knows him. ‘Get up’ I told him, ‘Run to his house. Tell him not to go there.’

He should not sin and God forbid, if this had been a trap, he would not have come to the position he is occupying right now… That person I called is alive, but I have not mentioned this incident to anybody up to now… This is what suits us… As a believer, this is our character. I can count maybe 10 similar incidents…”

Some questions and observations that inevitably come to mind:

1- Fethullah Gülen has said he has not mentioned this incident to anybody until today. Isn’t he reminding this “top personality” of something and sending a message in a sense? From these words, some can draw conclusions such as “I have some documents, act accordingly.”

2- Who is tipping off a religious leader living in America that “a top personality” is going to meet a woman; who feels this need? This “communication” is more interesting that the mentioned meeting, isn’t it?

3- While Gülen is saying, “I can count maybe 10 similar incidents,” what is he implying?

4- Indeed, those who interpret the speech also widen the matter and recall the cassettes (sex tapes illegally recorded) that have caused the fall of Deniz Baykal (former CHP leader) and some MHP deputies, writing, “We wish Gülen had saved Deniz Baykal, also.”

5- Isn’t it inevitable that when cassette talks are stirring the social media, at a time when the “government-community” tension is climbing, that it is perceived as “a message to the top administration of AK Party (Justice and Development Party)”?

6- One feels sad while listening to these statements from Gülen’s own voice. It seems as if the tension between the two sides is much harsher than we thought; clash-filled, weird and beyond logical dimensions. We are at a stage where everybody puts whatever they have on the table, when the game is becoming devoid of rules, moreover the logic norms we are used to are being abandoned.

Scenarios of Cem Küçük

The daily Yeni Şafak writer Cem Küçük has mentioned recently that a “community junta” was present within the police and the judiciary and that this junta was aiming to topple and arrest Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In a pro-government paper, we see new names and “scenarios” every day.
Even if a tiny portion of these claims is true, it means that the “government-community” tension is unfolding much more rapidly than we assumed and that it is getting out of control.

Well, what is the background of such a severe fight?

We are slowly approaching those days when the presidential election and AK Party’s probable new leader selections will take place.

Who will be the prime minister; who will lead the AK Party? Who will be in the government? These are not known… Those who search for the real reasons of the fight in this scope are naturally increasing.

While we are entering a period when the future of Turkey will be determined, we wish the level would be much higher… A political struggle focusing on solution and reconciliation, instead of clashing will be good for our country’s domestic peace.

Oral Çalışlar is a columnist for daily Radikal in which this piece was published on Dec. 13. It was translated into English by the Daily News staff.