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BÜLENT KENEŞ b.kenes@todayszaman.com National

Story of a major sale


The existence of a formation that has sparked all the sociopolitical tensions of the last few years, which coarsely plays with all the social "fault lines," which creates a fault line in the desired field event there are none, and which plants the seeds of hatred, anger and enmity between social segments, thereby precipitating the eruption of these fault lines, is known to you all.

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You also know that the name of this movement -- which in order to create for itself a maneuvering area and open a window to new opportunities -- heightens any sort of polarization and launches into any sort of provocation that would give rise to instability with no predictable consequences, is neo-nationalism.

The movement in question is one that organizes rallies hand-in-hand with so-called civil society organizations led by coup-planner retired generals in different cities with the crowds they bring along; one that sings marches with a totalitarian spirit while fluttering flags against its own people; and one that plays the nationalist before the people of this nation. As bigoted and fanatic as to brand everybody but the adherents of its ideology as "collaborators," "sellouts" and "traitors," this movement's fascist rhetoric is also known to you, I guess. We also know that this movement, which hides behind some of the nation's universal common values, such as Atatürk, secularism, modernism and republicanism, is at odds to all the values that make this nation a nation as it fans the flames of discrimination and separatism in disguise of neo-nationalism and spreads the seeds of hatred.

This primitive movement -- which set off with so pretentious a claim as "saving [the allegedly] occupied Turkey" and which has tried to create hysterical masses by feeding on the paranoia that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has been secretly staging a counterrevolution -- is suffering a major defeat these days. Its reason? It's so funny. The pioneer of this movement -- alright, let's exaggerate a bit by calling him the ideologist and leader of the movement -- Tuncay Özkan, happened to all of a sudden sell Kanaltürk, the movement's official broadcast organ, to a businessman from the conservative segment that this movement has been fighting in a very chauvinistic fashion. Neo-nationalists, suffering the great frustration of having been betrayed, are lashing out at Özkan with a feeling of great anger. They now view him as a commander who has betrayed them by selling all the weapons to the enemy amid an ongoing battle.

It is truly difficult to interpret this action of Özkan -- the boss of Kanaltürk, the trumpeter of this fascist movement that attacks everything different and ladles out anger and hatred under the guise of secularism, Atatürkism and republicanism -- as anything but betrayal. Selling Kanaltürk, the only tangible instrument of this movement, to a businessman from the segment that you have branded as the greatest enemy after basing your reason for existence on harboring hatred against and heaping insults on the AK Party government and in general all the liberal, democrat and conservative segments… Is this a tolerable or "ingestible" betrayal!

Well, look at what this Özkan has done after deceiving some naïve people with his proto-nationalist, primitive remarks he made in squares, as if the agitations and provocations his channel perpetrates 24/7 were not enough. What could be more natural now than the thousands of people he has deceived suffering great frustration?

After artfully "recruiting soldiers" for his fascist front through founding a Web site, www.bizkackisiyiz.com (How many are we?), and after collecting money from these site members through small text messages and membership fees, this sale, realized by Özkan at the first opportunity, is being perceived as a real betrayal by his miserable followers. On the Web sites that have been opened opposing him, he is being continually insulted and sworn at. Now he is at the target of the humiliating attitudes that he deemed fitting for others. But with a difference; this time the person on the receiving end of these insults deserves it.

So what do you think Özkan, who has made a leader of himself by sticking out the most in the neo-nationalist movement with his trenchant remarks, is doing? What could he do; he is crying a river of tears while telling stories about why he had to sell the channel and continuing to swear at this and that as a habit he had acquired in the squares. He also doesn't fail to boost the morale of those he has deceived: He will allegedly found a new TV station, publish a newspaper and also found a political party to carry the neo-nationalist movement to power and he says he will do this, wearing himself out…

God bless him… A man -- who has lost tens of millions of dollars by failing to manage even a small television channel despite the millions of dollars he received from the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the neo-nationalist wretches; who, at the first opportunity sold this channel to the segment he has been fighting; and who claims that there is not a single dime left in his pocket from this sale -- saying that he will found a party and tour the country is very convincing. Either he doesn't have a dime left to him from the sale or it is a lie that he will continue his struggle through new media organs.

Fortunately, we are familiar with his lies, just as he is familiar with his own lies, because those who follow Özkan's adventures know it very well: Everybody knows that this friend is very experienced in fooling the masses from the denigrating campaigns he carried out while working for the Doğan Media Group and then against the Doğan Media Group after starting to work for Doğan's rival group, just like his previous war against all the political rivals of Mesut Yılmaz, a center-right politician, in return for certain interests, while he has recently served the interests of the center-left CHP with all his might in return for certain interests.

I think the story is not over yet. We will wait and see who Tuncay Özkan and his cohorts will be serving, under what sort of mask and in return for how much money.

16 May 2008, Friday
BÜLENT KENEŞ
   
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Columnists
ABDULHAMİT BİLİCİ
ABDULLAH BOZKURT
ALİ BULAÇ
ALİ H. ASLAN
AMANDA PAUL
ANDREW FINKEL
ASIM ERDİLEK
AYŞE KARABAT
BEJAN MATUR
BERİL DEDEOĞLU
BERK ÇEKTİR
BÜLENT KENEŞ
BÜLENT KORUCU
CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON
DOĞU ERGİL
EKREM DUMANLI
EMRE USLU
ETYEN MAHÇUPYAN
FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK
FİKRET ERTAN
GÜRKAN ZENGİN
HASAN KANBOLAT
HÜSEYİN GÜLERCE
İBRAHİM KALIN
İBRAHİM ÖZTÜRK
İHSAN DAĞI
İHSAN YILMAZ
KATHY HAMILTON
KERİM BALCI
KLAUS JURGENS
LALE KEMAL
MEHMET KAMIŞ
MICHAEL KUSER
MUHAMMED ÇETİN
MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE
NICOLE POPE
ÖMER TAŞPINAR
ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ
PAT YALE
ŞAHİN ALPAY
SELÇUK GÜLTAŞLI
SUAT KINIKLIOĞLU
YAVUZ BAYDAR