The chairman of the Rights and Equality Party, retired Gen. Osman Pamukoğlu, who recently spoke to TV host Balçiçek Pamir on the Habertürk television station, said “the organization” was taking care of Taraf journalist Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı, who had criticized Pamukoğlu earlier for attempting to fan ethnic separatism and calling him the “Turkish chief separatist,” a reference to a term often used to describe the head of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan.
On the television program aired on Tuesday, Pamukoğlu leveled various insults at Kütahyalı. The show's host, Pamir, warned Pamukoğlu about his comments, saying, “We had better not talk about him, as he is not present.” However, her guest ignored the comment and called Kütahyalı “despicable and crooked,” adding, “Anyway, the organization is taking care of him.” In response to the question, “What does ‘taking care of' mean?” from a confused Pamir, Pamukoğlu said: “They are sending him messages. They are protesting against him. In other words, they are on it.”
According to a report in Taraf yesterday, Kütahyalı had indeed received messages from the group which Pamukoğlu said was “taking care of him,” such as, “We will rip your head off your body.” Kütahyalı, who announced that he would file a criminal complaint against those threatening him, was quoted in Taraf as saying, “Let them respond to me with their pens, with words, not with death threats.” In his statement on the issue published in Taraf, Kütahyalı said: “Such words and such a mentality are no more than the buzz of a fly for me. What this man [Pamukoğlu] did on Ümit Zileli's program on the ART channel -- shaking a map in his hands, saying, ‘Kurds did not fight alongside us in Çanakkale during the War of Independence' -- is sowing seeds of hatred in society, trying to divide this country. These words can drag this country into civil war. We will not allow either Kurdish fascists who threaten to separate ‘with blood if necessary,' nor Turkish fascists who utter these shameless words. I will fight this fascism until the end!” He also said the mentality of Pamukoğlu and the people in his unidentified group was the same as the mentality of those behind the assassinations of journalists Uğur Mumcu and Hrant Dink.
“These people aren't civilized; they don't have humanity. They can give any reply with words, but if they continue to act with such impertinence, the law and the police will do what's necessary. They will be punished as necessary.” He also called on Pamukoğlu to stop engaging in separatism and apologize to the country's Kurds.
