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AKP'S WAR AGAINST 'INTERNAL ENEMIES'
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Nov 4 2014
by ORHAN KEMAL CENGĂZ
November 04, 2014, Tuesday
When I was supporting the Justice and Development Party (AKP)
government, I was hoping that we would send the phrase "internal
enemies" into the dustbin of history in this country once and for all.
The concept of "internal enemies" and frequent reference to it was
one of the trademarks of the military rule in Turkey.
As Abraham Maslow once said, "If all you have is a hammer, everything
looks like a nail."
Soldiers have guns and the biggest problems they have to fight against
are the enemies. They have a difficult and noble job. However, if
they start to rule a country, the country inevitably turns into a
battlefield. We know how all these mechanisms worked in practice
in Turkey.
We very much used to hear the same cliches over and over again from our
generals. Our country was in a very big danger. We were challenging
the biggest danger we had ever seen in that particular moment when
the generals were talking to us. We were surrounded by enemies from
every angle and Turkey was full of enemies.
Leftists, Kurds, devout Muslims, our ethnic and religious minorities
were all turned into "internal enemies" one after another, but we
never had a shortage of these internal enemies.
There is of course a huge difference between being a suspect of an
alleged crime and being seen as an enemy. In the former situation
you have certain rights; you would give an account of your actions
before the court. In the latter situation, however, you are someone
against whom the state is in a kind of war.
And we have very tragic memories of the consequences of being labeled
an "enemy" by the military circles, such as in the case of Christian
missionaries. Starting in the early 2000s the National Security Council
(MGK) --which consisted of civilians and military personnel, but was,
in practice, an organ soldiers used to tell civilians what needed to
be done -- included "missionaries" on the list of groups that posed
a threat to national security. Missionaries were included in the
so-called "Red Book" which lists the enemies of Turkish state.
When they were cited as an enemy, certain groups read it as a sign and
Christians came under fire from every circle. In 2006, Catholic priest
Father Santoro was killed in Trabzon. In January 2007, Hrant Dink, a
Turkish Armenian journalist was killed and in April of the same year,
three Christians were killed when their throats were slit in Malatya.
When this government was gaining strength, the military guardianship
and the role of the MGK were weakened. And I was very happy for a while
that we had put aside this "internal enemies" nonsense and instead
we started to talk about crimes, suspects and their rights, and so on.
These days, however, we are unfortunately witnessing the resurrection
of this ghost of "internal enemies" once again and the ghost is being
called up by this government. The last MGK meeting took more then 10
hours, and the civilians and military personnel discussed whether or
not the Gulen movement should be included in the "Red Book," which
we have not heard about for a long time.
The AKP does not want to get rid of "internal enemies" but rather
it wants to monopolize the power to declare any group an internal
enemy against whom a war may be declared using of all the powers of
the state.
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnists/columnist/orhan-kemal-cengiz/akps-war-against-internal-enemies_363493.html
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Nov 4 2014
by ORHAN KEMAL CENGĂZ
November 04, 2014, Tuesday
When I was supporting the Justice and Development Party (AKP)
government, I was hoping that we would send the phrase "internal
enemies" into the dustbin of history in this country once and for all.
The concept of "internal enemies" and frequent reference to it was
one of the trademarks of the military rule in Turkey.
As Abraham Maslow once said, "If all you have is a hammer, everything
looks like a nail."
Soldiers have guns and the biggest problems they have to fight against
are the enemies. They have a difficult and noble job. However, if
they start to rule a country, the country inevitably turns into a
battlefield. We know how all these mechanisms worked in practice
in Turkey.
We very much used to hear the same cliches over and over again from our
generals. Our country was in a very big danger. We were challenging
the biggest danger we had ever seen in that particular moment when
the generals were talking to us. We were surrounded by enemies from
every angle and Turkey was full of enemies.
Leftists, Kurds, devout Muslims, our ethnic and religious minorities
were all turned into "internal enemies" one after another, but we
never had a shortage of these internal enemies.
There is of course a huge difference between being a suspect of an
alleged crime and being seen as an enemy. In the former situation
you have certain rights; you would give an account of your actions
before the court. In the latter situation, however, you are someone
against whom the state is in a kind of war.
And we have very tragic memories of the consequences of being labeled
an "enemy" by the military circles, such as in the case of Christian
missionaries. Starting in the early 2000s the National Security Council
(MGK) --which consisted of civilians and military personnel, but was,
in practice, an organ soldiers used to tell civilians what needed to
be done -- included "missionaries" on the list of groups that posed
a threat to national security. Missionaries were included in the
so-called "Red Book" which lists the enemies of Turkish state.
When they were cited as an enemy, certain groups read it as a sign and
Christians came under fire from every circle. In 2006, Catholic priest
Father Santoro was killed in Trabzon. In January 2007, Hrant Dink, a
Turkish Armenian journalist was killed and in April of the same year,
three Christians were killed when their throats were slit in Malatya.
When this government was gaining strength, the military guardianship
and the role of the MGK were weakened. And I was very happy for a while
that we had put aside this "internal enemies" nonsense and instead
we started to talk about crimes, suspects and their rights, and so on.
These days, however, we are unfortunately witnessing the resurrection
of this ghost of "internal enemies" once again and the ghost is being
called up by this government. The last MGK meeting took more then 10
hours, and the civilians and military personnel discussed whether or
not the Gulen movement should be included in the "Red Book," which
we have not heard about for a long time.
The AKP does not want to get rid of "internal enemies" but rather
it wants to monopolize the power to declare any group an internal
enemy against whom a war may be declared using of all the powers of
the state.
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnists/columnist/orhan-kemal-cengiz/akps-war-against-internal-enemies_363493.html