Date posted: February 18, 2014

AYDOGAN VATANDAS

The most important message the Gezi protests gave was the message that the Erdogan’s government lost its credibility in the eyes of some sections of the society.

Although some of the members of the government took this message, Erdogan himself, interpreted this protest as an coup attempt against himself and turned it into a matter of existence. While he called the protestors as “looters” he also called them as pawns of foreign powers who doesn’t want Turkey to grow.

When we look at Erdogan’s speeches since December 17, it is clear to see that he already passed a level of suspicion about Cemaat (aka Hizmet) and accuses Hizmet for every development that troubles him including the Gezi protests.

Still, such a position should not have been the cause of such a paranoid thinking that the Hizmet was behind the protests. Such protests happen all over the world and governments try to wreck such protests using their intelligence agencies and psychological warfare tools and black propaganda is amongst them. For example, there has been a resemblance between the protests in Brazil and Turkey. The protestors’ initial legitimate requests has later been abused by some provocative groups and protestors’ legitimate requests has been sabotaged by such groups.

The same thing happened in Turkey. The innocent protests that have started as an environmental cause have later been sabotaged with the involvement of illegal organizations in an attempt to illegitimatize the protests against the government. Some of the arguments that have been used to illegitimatize the protests were that “protestors consumed alcohol inside a mosque” and that “protestors attacked a women wearing hijab”.

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I consider a few protests that took place in Pennsylvania in the same category. As known, Fethullah Gulen had suggested that the protestors should be listened to and not be treated harshly. This was an expression to show that the people’s voice and requests at Gezi should not be rejected. At the same time, Oray Egin’s comments, who supported the protestors in Pennsylvania only at an ‘intellectual level’, (he found these protests as timeless, pointless, nonintellectual, and the greatest secular fiasco of the history of protests) indicate that there is no relationship between the protests in Gezi and Pennsylvania.

Even when the reports of the USA based newspaper called Posta212, which reflected the spirit of the Gezi protests, are studied carefully it is clear to see that the Pennsylvania protestors doesn’t meet with Gezi protestors in the same perspective.

That is, it is obvious that the motivations of the Pennsylvania protestors are not parallel to the ones at Gezi as claimed and involves discrepancies.

The common opinion of the Turkish American society is that the Erdogan’s government is behind the Pennsylvania protests. The goal behind this attempt is to prevent the journalists who write in the pro-Hizmet media from providing intellectual support to the Gezi protests. It may also have been to give Hizmet followers to create the impression that the Gezi protests are also against the Hizmet movement. However, it seems like this is not the only goal behind the Pennsylvania protests. “Timing is meaningful”.

May be a coincidence but whenever there was a call to motivate people to protest [in Pennsylvania] those were the times when Erdogan’s anger was at its peak. There is a famous saying American’s use: “if it looks quacks like a duck then it is a duck”.

If Erdogan’s AK Party government is managing such protests in a country like America and it gets caught by the FBI the severe consequences this might bring must be considered.

Original article written by Aydogan Vatandas on Samanyoluhaber.com on 02/17/2014 and translated into English by Ugur Tezcan.

Source: TurkeyObserved.com , February 18, 2014

Tags: Democracy | Hizmet (Gulen) movement | Turkey |