"Fitna" is an Arabic term with broad connotations, including schism, secession, upheaval and anarchy. It is often used to refer to civil war, disagreement and division within a nation. The meaning of the term is illustrated in apocalyptic literature by people under extreme moral and psychological stress compromising their faith in return for worldly gain and, sometimes, in return for their lives.
I don't know whether it is because it has been inherited from the Byzantine Empire, but fitna has never ceased to plague these lands. Unfortunately, this is a country where "Byzantine plots" of deceit and backstabbing are still quite common. Even though one of the disasters which Turks, like all Muslim nations, fear and curse the most is fitna, it is still a part of our daily lives. Let me explain what I mean by this.
Can you imagine a greater "fitna" than the people to whom you entrust the security of your country launching attempts to overthrow a democratically elected government by leaving aside their real duties and plotting coups? Do I need to emphasize once again how great a fitna there was in the coup plans called "Ayışığı" and "Sarıkız" of the army commanders of the previous term? How separately can we think of these plots from this current coup fitna? What else can we make of those who were unable to achieve their heinous aspirations owing to the democratic personality of the chief of General Staff of the time, Gen. Hilmi Özkök, later organizing para-civilian acts and holding republican rallies by mobilizing tens of thousands of people unaware of their evil intentions with the claim that "secularism was under threat"? Is it, on the other hand, possible to not be terrified given the fact that what has so far been exposed is only a limited part of this fitna, the tip of the iceberg?
Think about this, too: Can there be anything more natural than a political party that arrived in power by garnering every other vote in the last elections removing an anti-democratic ban that had long victimized an important segment of its constituency? However, a certain segment of society that doesn't refrain from using the judiciary and media like weapons has the temerity to initiate a legal process to shut down the ruling party because it tried to lift a primitive and fascist ban with the support of over 75 percent of the population. In this way, they prove to be ferocious enough to carry this cursed "fitna" bar, meant to divide the society at its foundation, as high as possible.
On the other hand, with what other term but "fitna" can we explain the illegal intelligence organization called JİTEM, the so-called gendarmerie intelligence unit, founded under the roof of the General Command of the Gendarmerie Force without any legal ground, perpetrating all sorts of inconceivable bloody acts and applying its psychological warfare methods against people and democratic institutions? Is it not interesting enough that this JİTEM is the organization that founded and manipulated the fundamentalist Hizbullah terrorist organization, which rose to public attention through the most savage bloody acts and mysterious murders, and that organized and sponsored denigration campaigns against important political figures, such as President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan? Does Ergün Poyraz, who is known as the author of the books that played an important role in this smear campaign, being regularly paid by JİTEM not clearly reveal what sort of dark centers this massive fitna extends into?
Of course, it is unthinkable for this fitna, underhandedly devised through all sorts of betrayals, to be without "subcontractors," hitmen and stooges. The "subcontractor" of this massive fitna, the dirty laundry of which is now being exposed one by one, is none other than the Ergenekon terrorist organization.
Who has not been siding with this "fitna organization," which prefers vileness over manliness, darkness over illumination, betrayal over loyalty, illegality over legality, provocation over propitiation and chaos over peace? Retired or currently serving army officers, unqualified but ambitious neo-nationalist politicians, plot-prone political parties, media organs, businessmen, judges, journalists, mafia…
All of them are a part of this bloody fitna organization. We would not have any difficulty surmising that this fitna organization extends into far greater depths in the state and to far more influential posts considering this malignancy, bloody action and seemingly executive power.
This fitna organization, which has surrounded the country, society and the state like an octopus, must have worked its way into the system so well that they can easily manipulate the judiciary, the universities, the army, politics and an important part of the media to perpetrate their dark schemes. They are very successful in employing the fiercest methods to commit murders and assassinations and spark chaos and then pinning all these crimes on innocent people. And then they are cheeky enough to turn into “apostles of social peace” whenever they have their backs against the wall. They mobilize civil society organizations to issue calls for everybody “to take one step back” for peace, whereas what we know for sure is that the way to get rid of the fitna is to courageously go to the bitter end to resist this fitna.
A curse upon whoever is a part of this fitna!
