May 2023 – Bir Muhacirin Günlüğü

Recently, we have seen a Twit series[1] from the renowned scholar Yasir Qadhi -to whom I have great respect- regarding the elections in Turkey, citing a decree signed by some reputable scholars in the Muslim world that is urging Muslims all around the world to support Erdogan in the upcoming elections. And later, I saw an op-ed from my long-time friend and one of the most influential intellectuals in the Somalian American Community, Abukar Arman, in Eurasia Review[2] regarding the same topic with a different approach.

Qadhi was pointing out the controversial nature of politics vs. religion relations. Yet, he was vouching for Erdogan since “he is the lesser evil among the candidates” because the opposition is “anti-Islamic.” And in his op-ed, my dear friend Arman stated, “This election is ultimately between Erdoganites and Gulenites,” calling both parties to a truce for the sake of Turkey. First of all, I must say that both assessments are misinformed and lack depth. The issue is much more complex than that. Neither the elections are between Erdogan and Gulen Movement, nor the opposition is anti-Islamic. The misinformation stems from the fact that not only Erdogan currently controls 90% of the media in Turkey, but also he has built himself a Goebblistic propaganda machine and troll network under the State Department of Communications created in 2018) using the state resources. His propaganda machine is 7/24 propagating false information about Turkey, especially in the Muslim world. The misinformation in Qadhis Twits and Brother Arman’s evaluation of Turkish economics are solid examples of this propaganda.

Qadhi states the opposition is Kemalist and anti-Islamic, yet the opposition is a coalition of six parties, of which three can be considered Islamist parties. Refah Partisi is Turkey’s first political Islamist party, established by Erbakan in the 60s, in which Erdogan started his political career and was elected Istanbul’s mayor. Gelecek Partisi is established by Ahmet Davutoglu, Erdogan’s previous Prime Minister, a scholar, and a political Islamist himself. Deva Partisi is established by Ali Babacan, who was Erdogan’s economy minister during his first two terms and behind Turkey’s successful economic development in the 2000s. Just like most founding members of AKP, Davutoglu, and Babacan left AKP after the false-flag coup attempt in 2016 because they saw Erdogan was building an autocratic regime and did not want to be part of it. The fourth party in the coalition is Iyi Parti, which is a conservative nationalist party that separated from Erdogan’s ultra-nationalist coalition partner, MHP. As you see, “the opposition is anti-Islamic” is concrete misinformation and a lie spread by Erdogan’s propaganda machine in the Islamic world. Starting in 2014, Erdogan began an unnamed coalition with ultra-secular, ultra-nationalist groups called “ulusalcilar or Avrasyacilar,” who are anti-West and pro-Russia/China. Although they are a hundred percent anti-Islamic, they have fanatically supported Erdogan’s regime since 2014. The most prominent figures of this fraction, including many generals from the armed forces, were sentenced to life as a result of the coup attempt trials in 2008-2010. The same group had tried to shut down AKP in the Supreme Court with bogus charges in 2006. Two of Erdogan’s advisors since he became President in 2014, Yigit Bulut and Fahri Kasirga are from this fraction. Especially Kasirga, a dark figure from the 1990s deep state establishment, helped Erdogan gain control of the judiciary and bureaucracy at large.

In his op-ed, Brother Arman mentions Erdogan’s regime’s future projects and accomplishments, such as the Istanbul Canal, the first domestically built aircraft carrier, purchasing of S400 missile system from Russia, and so on. First of all, Turkey’s economy is on the brink of collapse right now. Despite the Central Bank’s efforts to suppress dollar valuation, the Dollar to Lira exchange rate is currently 20 TL, which was 1.9 TL ten years ago. This means the Turkish currency lost value 10-fold in the last ten years. The current inflation rate is over 50%. The aircraft carrier brother Arman mentioned was meant to be for F35s fighter jets that have short take-off and vertical-landing capabilities and is not suitable for Turkey’s current fleet of F16s. F16s cannot land and take off from that ship. That is why they used drones instead of actual fighter jets at the opening ceremony to delude the voters. Indeep, Turkey was one of the partners of the F35 project, which is going to be the most advanced fighter jet for the upcoming decades; however, “Turkey’s acquisition of the Russian-manufactured S-400 missile air defense system in 2019 (in place of United States or NATO-manufactured equivalents) resulted, not only in Turkey being booted out of the F-35 program but also in the imposition of the US sanctions.”[3]

My goal in writing this piece is beyond these controversial issues of Erdogan’s economic achievements or failures. I want to set out some undeniable facts about Erdogan’s regime and ask my Muslim American brothers and sisters if they would support such a leader in American politics.

1- Erdogan has been in power for 22 years now. Most of his party’s founders have left the party. He is in the position of Supreme Leader in the eyes of his supporters. There is nobody who can contest him within his party. He and his propaganda machine immediately condemn his previous partners, whoever parted ways with him, labeling them as traitors and losers who were appointed to their positions with the grace of Erdogan despite their inefficiencies, such as Abdullah Gul, the former President of Turkey (2007-2014) and one of the three figures who established AKP in 2002, Ahmet Davutoglu, who served as Prime Minister after Erdogan (2014-2016), Ali Babacan, former Economy Minister, Foreign Affairs Minister and Deputy PM (2002-2015) and the architect of AKP’s early successful economic development. Erdogan mandates absolute obedience and cannot tolerate even the slightest disaccord in his party.

2- Since the false-flag coup attempt in 2016, there has been no rule of the law nor any checks and balances in Turkish politics. All three branches of the state are dominated by Erdogan. The day after the coop attempt, more than 3,500 judiciary members were sacked and arrested,[4] although they had no connection whatsoever with the so-called coup attempt. Many of those judiciary members have been in solitary confinement for seven years. Since then, around 200,000 public employees, almost 10% of all government workers, were purged[5] by emergency decrees with no appeal rights. Nearly 700,000 people have been investigated, and more than 300,000 people have been detained and arrested[6] from all walks of life, including armed forces, police, doctors, bureaucrats, academicians, teachers, businessmen, housewives, students, elderly, and mothers with their infants with the categorical crime of “affiliation with a terrorist organization.” Although there is no trace of any crime or corruption in their convictions, newspaper subscriptions, bank accounts, union membership, or the schools they sent their children to many years ago were used as “evidence” for their so-called “affiliation with FETO, Fethullah Gulenist Terror Organization.” Those 700,000 people (over 2 million with their family members) have been demonized and dehumanized as FETO members and deprived of their fundamental human rights. Their diplomas have been revoked, passports canceled, they have been barred from practicing their profession or finding employment in the private sector, and their children are humiliated at the schools. Recently police have been raiding the homes of people whoever tries to extend a hand to the marginalized and dehumanized family members of “FETO” prisoners.[7]

3- However, the Gulen Movement is not Turkey’s only oppression victim. Selahattin Demirtas, the leader of the second-largest opposition party HDP has been in jail since 2016, along with most of his party’s representatives and municipal leaders. In the 2018’s elections, HDP won 12%of the votes. After the short democracy break in the 2000s, Erdogan reestablished the Kemalist state’s ultra-nationalist discourse with the Kurdish minority. After the coup attempt, 180 media outlets, including Kurdish media, were shut down, and “Turkey became the biggest jailer of journalists in the world.”[8] Hundreds of journalists have fled to exile among the hundreds of thousands of others since 2016.

4- Freedom House states Turkey has been among the “not free” countries since 2016.[9] According to Human Rights Watch, torture is widespread in Turkey[10] simply because it has no consequences. According to Transparency International’s corruption index, Turkey ranked 101 out of 180 countries in 2021.[11] The tourism minister has hotels, the health minister runs private hospitals, the education minister operates a private school network, and top AKP officials publicly manipulate the stock market as it fits their interests. After the purge, all the government positions have been filled with Erdogan militants regardless of their merit or background. There is no rule of law. According to WJP (World Justice Project), in 2021, in the Rule of Law Index, Turkey ranked 117 among 139 countries; in the Fundamental Rights Index, it ranked 133 out of 139.[12] Some brothers may claim Western agencies are biased against Erdogan because he does not serve US/European interests. I want to remind those brothers and sisters that until 2013, Turkey was a rising star in the West. It was always applauded as the only Muslim democracy in the world. Turkey’s rankings in democracy, human rights, or the rule of law indexes steadily increased from 2002 until 2013, and Turkey appeared to be a genuine European Union candidate. So, why weren’t all those Western organizations and states biased against Erdogan back then, and why are they biased today? What happened to Turkey in the last decade? The simple answer to this question is the number one rule of political science; power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Erdogan was already a corrupt leader when his ministers’ sons’ houses were raided and they were caught with millions of dollars of cash from bribery in December 2013. Usually, in any democratic country, Erdogan was supposed to let the judiciary process continue in such a situation. Still, he immediately purged all the police and prosecutors involved in those investigations and blamed Gulen Movement for trying to topple his government. Although those policemen did nothing wrong according to the law, they are still in jail for being members of “FETO.”

5- The opposition is 7/24 demonized as public enemies and terror supporters. A vast network of troll armies and hundreds of media lackeys generously fed by public funds sing the same song day and night that opposition is hand in hand with terrorist groups and Western powers. According to Erdogan’s supporters, there is absolutely nobody who can run the government other than Erdogan. If somehow he is “overthrown” (even by elections), foreign actors (one of the most ambiguous terms in their discourse ranging from Israel to the US, from the UK to the Vatican, or from Rockefeller to World Economic Forum of Davos) along with their internal collaborators such as FETO and PKK are waiting to invade at the gates of Turkey. On several occasions, these ridiculous claims have been voiced even by Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu publicly.

6- Erdogan reshaped the Board of Elections after his Istanbul and Ankara candidates’ defeat in 2019. The current Head of the Election Board, Ahmet Yener, is an Erdogan lackey. His brother, Metin Yener, the Chief of National Audit Office, is another Erdogan minion whose primary duty is covering and whitewashing the corruption in Erdogan’s regime. Although it has been almost two weeks, Election Board has not published the official results of the first run yet. Even if it did, there is no way to verify those results because there is no independent news agency other than the government’s agency, Anadolu Agency, AA. The opposition is crippled with its own shortcomings and Erdogan’s plots. For example, the opposition’s head of the election committee during the last presidential elections in 2018, a hardcore Ulusalci from the ultra-secular, ultra-nationalist fraction I mentioned above, joined AKP last year. TRT, the National Television, AA, the National Department of Communications, and the troll network operate as the Ministery of Truth in George Orwell’s famous novel 1984.

7- Erdogan is a pathological liar. I am not claiming this simply because I am an Erdogan dissident, but this fact can be proven with hundreds of apparent lies that he shamelessly tells in front of millions. In his latest public rallies, he showed a montaged video clip of opposition leaders chanting their campaign song along with PKK (Kurdish Separatist Guerilla) leaders as if it was real. He later acknowledged that it might have been montaged, saying, “So what!”[13], [14]

8- When Erdogan was elected as Istanbul’s mayor, he was a poor politician from a low-income family. Especially after 2013, his family’s and close circle’s wealth has skyrocketed to billions of dollars. Since there is no transparency, nobody knows the scope of his family’s wealth. His family and the so-called Islamist elite he created in the last decade live extravagant lives. For himself, he had a palace built with 1,100 rooms which cost 1.2 billion dollars of taxpayers’ money.[15] Later he had several other palaces and summer/winter mansions constructed in Istanbul,[16] Marmaris,[17] and Van.[18]

So in light of those facts, I would like to ask the most honorable Muslim American Leaders, if this election were in the US, would you vote for an oppressor who has been in power for 22 years just because he appears to be Muslim outwardly? Would you vouch for a candidate who wastes public tax dollars on extravagant palaces, a dozen ultra-luxurious presidential planes, hundreds of luxury cars, and travels everywhere literally with an army of security guards? Would you vote for a candidate who destroyed democracy, checks and balances, and accumulated all the power in his hands? Would you support a corrupt politician who has no regard for fundamental human rights, the rule of law, or freedom of speech? Would you vote for a candidate who marginalizes his dissidents as terrorists, spreading hatred among communities and destroying social peace? Would you vote for a candidate worshiped almost by half of the nation but loathed and disgusted by the remaining half? This election is neither between the Muslims and infidels nor between Erdogan and Gulen Movement. Gulen Movement is long gone from Turkey. 2 million people have been demonized and dehumanized, fighting for justice and their fundamental rights. Even after the earthquake, they were discriminated against and not given the benefits entitled to the other earthquake victims. This election is between democracy and a full-blown dictatorship. It is between a total economic meltdown and a relatively milder economic crisis. It is between a narcissist liar and a much lesser evil, from whom we expect to reestablish democracy and the rule of law and bring back checks and balances in the government. So, while you enjoy the fruits of democracy in the USA, why do you deem autocracy and a Middle East dictator for the people of Turkey?

I should also add that; the race was unfair; the referee was bought out, so there is little to no chance that Erdogan will lose. Even if somehow he loses, he will not leave half a dozen presidential palaces that he had constructed for his highness, especially when he captured absolute power. After all, at least 30% of the people literally worship him even though they get poorer day by day. Politics is already a dirty business, but when mixed with religion, it becomes poisonous. Now that he has proven to the whole world what a democratic leader he is by leaving the fixed elections to the second round, the Supreme Leader of Turkey is ready to rule until the end of his days.

[1] https://twitter.com/YasirQadhi/status/1656607061734576128

[2] https://www.eurasiareview.com/09052023-can-turkeys-election-inspire-harmony-oped/

[3] https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2023/03/29/is-turkey-about-to-ditch-its-russian-s-400-missile-system/#:~:text=Turkey’s%20acquisition%20of%20the%20Russian,the%20imposition%20of%20U.S.%20sanctions

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016%E2%80%93present_purges_in_Turkey

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016%E2%80%93present_purges_in_Turkey

[6] https://www.yenisafak.com/gundem/fetoden-612-bin-kisiye-islem-3587006

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016%E2%80%93present_purges_in_Turkey

[8] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/02/free-turkey-media/#:~:text=Turkey%20has%20earned%20an%20accolade,of%20journalists%20in%20the%20world

[9] https://freedomhouse.org/explore-the-map?type=fiw&year=2023

[10] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/turkey

[11] https://www.transparency.org/en/countries/turkey

[12] https://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/country/2021/Turkey/