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July 31, 2008
Terrorism In The Turkish Mind
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Do you know who bombed the busiest street in Istanbul's Güngören district last Sunday night and killed innocent bystanders?
You probably don't have any answer. And neither do I.
Continue reading "Terrorism In The Turkish Mind"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:06 AM | Comments (2)
July 27, 2008
The Islamist Branch of Ergenekon?
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
The investigation into the shadowy group called Ergenekon has been perceived in the foreign press as yet another round in the war between Turkey's "Islamists" and "secularists." After the arrest of 24 alleged Ergenekonists, including two retired top generals, a headline simply read, "Islamist government cracking down on secularists." If you know nothing about Turkey, what you would infer from that sentence could be that a Taliban-like administration is attacking lighthearted liberals.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:58 AM | Comments (2)
July 24, 2008
Why The CIA Funds Me and Other Nonsense
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
If there is one thing that the Kemalists never lack, that is imagination. They can make up, and then believe in, all sorts of fantasy. Their pundits have recently created a vast range of conspiracy theories from the lunacy that “Islamist” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is in fact a crypto Jew who serves the Elders of Zion to the more popular nonsense that the U.S. government aims at establishing a “moderate Islamic republic” in Turkey.
Continue reading "Why The CIA Funds Me and Other Nonsense"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:45 AM | Comments (5)
July 20, 2008
Is Turkey A 'Mistaken Republic?'
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
You should meet Sevan Nişanyan. A Turkish citizen of Armenian decent, he studied philosophy at Yale, political science at Columbia, and now teaches Turkish language and history at Istanbul’s Bilgi University. In the past he has written several books about tourism in Turkey that were all well received by everyone who read them, but his recent title made him a public enemy in the eyes of Turkey's staunch Kemalists. Mr. Nişanyan, with all his boldness, argues that Kemalism is, in essence, what we commonly know as fascism.
Continue reading "Is Turkey A 'Mistaken Republic?'"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 4:44 PM | Comments (8)
July 17, 2008
Turkey Meets 'Kemalist Terror'
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
On Monday, we heard at least a summary of the indictment in the Ergenekon case from Istanbul's chief prosecutor, Aykut Cengiz Engin. Among the many striking things he noted, one was very new to Turkey. He said that Ergenekon was a “terrorist organization” that “used the ideologies of Kemalism, Atatürkism.”
Continue reading "Turkey Meets 'Kemalist Terror'"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 2:48 PM | Comments (1)
July 14, 2008
The Plot Against Turkey
The Ergenekon case is the latest salvo in the battle between the ruling AKP and the nationalist old guard.
Read the article in Newsweek, where it was originally published.
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:13 AM | Comments (1)
July 12, 2008
The Logic of Islamist Terror
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Wednesday's bloody shootout at the American Consulate in Istanbul is still not totally solved. No organization claimed the attack, which left three Turkish policemen dead and two injured. But the evidence collected by the Turkish security forces so far makes it reasonable to assume that there was an Islamist motive in the mind of the attackers. Actually three of them died right on the spot, and the fourth one turned out to be a paid driver. So there is no interrogation-based information. But the police found out that one of the dead terrorists had traveled to Iran and Afghanistan. The other's father was arrested in 1999 for links with the shadowy “Turkish Hizbollah,” a Kurdish Islamist terror group. The general impression in the Turkish media is that the attackers were at least ideologically linked with al Qaeda. So, this seems to be a case of “Islamist terror.”
Continue reading "The Logic of Islamist Terror"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 6:48 AM | Comments (10)
July 10, 2008
Good Cops Versus Bad Soldiers?
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
In his piece in the Wall Street Journal the other day, Washington-based Turkish researcher Soner Çağaptay was talking about “Turkey versus Turkey.” The “two Turkeys” he was mentioning were the AKP (Justice and Development Party) folks and “secular Turks.” And if the former would “win” the political battle, Mr. Çağaptay was arguing, Turkey would become “less like secular, liberal-democratic Italy and more like authoritarian, semisecular Jordan.”
Continue reading "Good Cops Versus Bad Soldiers?"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 6:44 AM | Comments (2)
July 7, 2008
The Amazing Adventures of The Ergenekon Mates
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Yesterday, fellow Turkish Daily News columnist Semih İdiz was arguing that the “inconsistent approach from Europe” on Turkey's legal matters was “turning Turks away from not just the EU, but the West as a whole.”
Well, I am a Turk, too, but I have no problem with Europe's approach to Turkey's legal matters. And I bet at the half of the country thinking like me.
Continue reading "The Amazing Adventures of The Ergenekon Mates"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:51 AM | Comments (1)
July 3, 2008
The Arrest of The Untouchables
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Something quite unprecedented happened in Turkey the other day. Early in the morning, a police force of about 6000 launched an operation to arrest 25 influential men, including two retired four-star generals. One of them, Hurşit Tolon, is said to have reminded the police, “I am a general!” Yet, apparently, this did not save him from being taken from Ankara to Istanbul to be questioned by the prosecutors who lead the famous and controversial “Ergenekon” case.
Continue reading "The Arrest of The Untouchables"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:24 AM | Comments (3)
July 1, 2008
Bomb The Kurds, Curb The Muslims, Save The Republic!
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Have you seen the news about how the Turkish military plans to restrain Turkish society? If you havenât, here is the gist: bomb the Kurds, purge the conservative Muslims, manipulate the judiciary, and create a military-friendly media.
Continue reading "Bomb The Kurds, Curb The Muslims, Save The Republic!"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:22 AM | Comments (0)
