For the last week, despite the innumerable issues of the country, developments surrounding the claim that “Erdoğan had a secret meeting at the Palace with someone from CHP” are continuing to figure as the most important topic of agenda for politics and the media.
Also in this column on Saturday, by appealing to “See where politics have arrived at,” this conspiracy as a reflection of the degeneration of politics, of the disregard towards peoples’ was also considered.
But what the truth coming to the fore, which is incidentally facing efforts to be buried once again, has been showing is that stating “See the politics alone” is itself merely a part of the truth.
Developments over the past week since this claim was presented has shown that not only is it not adequate to say “See where politics have arrived at,” but that, on the converse, this attempt comprises an even more broader and “deeper” intervention seeking to restructure politics.
Let us firstly briefly recall how the claim about the “meeting at the Palace” had been presented.
Rahmi Turan, stating also that he stands by the source of the news, had said the following in summary: “A person close to the Palace whom I trust had told me that someone from CHP arrived with a car with a certain number plate and left with another, that such a meeting took place but that I will neither disclose the identity of this person from CHP nor that of my source.”
Subsequent to statements from Kılıçdaroğlu [CHP leader] and the Palace that “no such meeting took place,” Rahmi Turan disclosed the identity of his source and the name this source provided.
As Rahmi Turan began to be cornered, he declared his source not to be someone close the Palace but Talat Atilla, the journalist and also that the person from CHP who has met the President was Muharrem İnce.
Talat Atilla alleged that his source was someone from within the CHP and that he had got Kılıçdaroğlu to confirm the news but adding further that “I will never disclose my source from within CHP,” and posturing as a “principled journalist,” he then withdrew to silence. But the next move arrived from the legal front of the pro-government media.
Known for his ties to the government, Murat Kelkitlioğlu, stated in his column in TV100, of which he is a director, that “what I am about to reveal is also from a source from within CHP,” and claimed that Talat Atilla’s source is Tuncay Özkan, the CHP deputy leader. However, Uğur Dündar stated that he hasn’t met Tuncay Özkan for the last two years neither face to face nor through telephone!
Of course, not only the mentioned “journalists” but the pro-government media is behind this conspiracy with all means at their disposal in order to turn the situation in CHP into a crisis.
It is not a coincidence that the most important topic of discussion in the pro-government media over the last week has been debates taking place within CHP. On the contrary, pro-government media’s full backing of this conspiracy, to be sure, is indicative of a “deputation of tasks” which seems to have taken place.
This is such that;
Although Rahmi Turan stated that “my news source is someone close to the Palace and trustworthy person,” it became evident that his source was not someone from around the Palace but that it was Talat Atilla who is not regarded as credible in terms of his relations and journalism amongst also the journalists themselves. And statements by the eighty-year-old Rahmi Turan, regarded as a wolf of a journalist, describing his source as a “trustworthy news source” and as “someone close to the Palace,” to be sure, renders it very questionable to regard Rahmi Turan as being completely outside of the conspiracy, as someone who was misled or has been victimised. And it is not something that could be waived by statements that “he was misled” or apologies to be issued from his column.
Talat Atilla’s referencing of “someone from CHP” from amongst millions in CHP and thereby deferral of the issue to the “unknown” has also lifted the lid for a speculation and black propaganda which will cause those in CHP (practically those in the forefront in CHP) to regard each other with suspicion. As Murat Kelkitoğlu presented Tuncay Özkan, it has been adequate for him to say “What I will relate also is sourced from someone from within CHP”. It will not be hard any longer for the pro-government media to throw new names into the fray simply stating that “This is what I heard from a source from within CHP”!
Speaking at his party’s group meeting yesterday, Erdoğan was as cheerful as we have not seen him recently while he was talking about the conspiracy targeting the CHP. Appealing to jokes and nursery rhymes, he assessed all that has been going as CHP beating itself up; he ridiculed the CHP and insulted the public’s intelligence.
But once the developments are considered from an objective basis, the following are evident:
The President who has been presented as the target of this conspiracy at the outset seems to be the target of this conspiracy. For, according to the allegation, the President seems to have undertaken a move seeking to start an operation within the CHP. As for the CHP, it is the victim. But a step later, the process has been turned into its opposite such that President has become subject to slander and further that, this lie has been generated within the struggle for power within the CHP in order to frame Kılıçdaroğlu’s rivals as being supported by Erdoğan. The CHP has been dragged into an internal debate on the basis of this meeting which never took place. If the conspiracy proves successful, the road will be paved for not only the CHP but the National Alliance to be swept into chaos. This will also proceed as an operation to disintegrate the National Alliance.
As has been seen clearly through the developments taking place in a week, the conspiracy now ongoing in the form of intense internal debates within the CHP cannot be regarded as an incident caused by “simple” causes, “a failure of communication within the CHP,” “the misleading of journalists”… On the contrary, the conspiracy seems not be a simple one but “one organised in depth.”
This is because, this conspiracy has characteristics which makes it possible for it to be accounted through “counter” concepts such as “psychological warfare” or “asymmetric warfare.” For this reason, it is a conspiracy to which “expert labour” has been dedicated.
It is hard to know concretely the members of legal media, the political personalities, cliques, parties who are involved in this conspiracy. However, once politics is followed correctly, the developments reveal who has been preparing or a tool of this conspiracy.
And indeed, the developments generated by the conspiracy cohere very well with Erdoğan and AKP propaganda’s emphasis “to present CHP and Kılıçdaroğlu” as the target on every possible occasion and Erdoğan’s statement on the second day of the “Peace Spring” operation that there is “a need to dissolve the National Alliance.”
In other words, it is a conspiracy to re-build politics in accordance with the needs of the one-man regime which we are facing!
İhsan Çaralan
Bülent Falakaoğlu
Hakkı Özdal
