Thanks to Deniz Feneri, AKP shows its real undemocratic and pro-religious face

[Prof. Dr. Mukerrem Hic]

The Deniz Feneri incident brought to light and to court by the German
judiciary exposed how some organizations with ties to religious and
AKP circles could exploit the goodwill of Turkish people abroad (as
well as at home) feeling attachment to their religion. They were
swindled and money collected from them for “good” purposes were
transferred to the Deniz Feneri counter-parts and accomplices in
Turkey, including some AKP members. The Deniz Feneri operating in
Turkey had been praised by AKP government some years ago and had
received awards for their “high services to the country”.

When the free press (those not created or bought by AKP supporters,
some of whom received ample credit from the state-banks under AKP's
control) exposed the matter as head-lines, Tayyip Erdogan accused not
the wrong-doers, that is, the Deniz Feneri executives for their wrong-
doing and exploitation of religion, but chose to attack, instead,
Aydin Dogan of Dogan Media Holding, which publishes the widely read
and influential Hurriyet newspaper. His reason was that they had also
published the assertions of some Deniz Feneri executives that some
part of the money had been sent to the prime-ministry. The German
prosecutor had also complained openly that the AKP government had
tried to pressure the German judiciary to suppress the matter. Erdogan
skipped the main theme and called the Dogan Group “to prove that the
prime-ministry had received any money from Deniz Feneri. He blatantly
threatened Aydin Dogan for his former business applications when
Erdogan was Istanbul mayor; implying the application and other
applications he made were unlawful; which are not. He further
threatened Aydin Dogan of other items, which were waiting in his
dossiers. Erdogan accused that the writers in these “opposing”
newspapers were all “paid servants to Aydin Dogan”. Only a week later,
he came around to denounce Deniz Feneri executives, his-comrades-in-
arms for their wrong-doings. By upbringing, as well as by nature,
Erdogan is blatantly argumentative, quarrelsome, and hence “divisive”.
Abdullah Gul, the President, in contrast, for instance, has the same
convictions as Erdogan has, but is not a quarrelsome personality.

The US politicians and military were too pre-occupied with the
presidential elections, and the importance of Turkey to them in their
operations in Iraq. So, they did not go much deeply into the Deniz
Feneri incident. But Europe and the EU had, for a change, to denounce
Erdogan's stand concerning the press as undemocratic. This included
Claudia Roth (co-chairwoman of the German Green Party and member of
EU), who noted Erdogan's behavior did not conform with the free press
principle among the Copenhagen criteria. So did Olli Rehn of the EU,
as well as Joost Lagendijk of the EP. Moreover, David Dodge, chairman
of the International Press Institute (IPI) also openly criticized the
obvious breach of respect of the principle of free press. The next
day, Erdogan, talking to his AKP personnel in a party meeting, asked:
“What is this IPI, anyway; I find only Dogan Group is a member, and
hence they support Aydin Dogan. They have no authority on Turkey and
naturally I do not need to listen to them.” Associated Press had also
voiced an opinion similar to the IPI. Many writers in the free part of
the media and the press likened Erdogan's attitude about the press to
those of Hitler and Mussolini, many likened him to Khomeini of Iran.

It is most logical and understandable that the European and the EU
authorities restricted their criticisms only to the breach of the
principle of free press. But the same event evidently also exposes the
close ties that AKP has with religious organizations and the support
AKP lends to them; hence their anti-laicist inner motivations.