“Tape Assault” Campaign in Turkey .. An Inferior & Disgusting Means to Use in Politics

The Turkish prime minister and religious leader Fethullah Gülen are cozying up to each other over a tape scandal that led to the resignation Tuesday of two senior members of the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP.

“It is ugly for [MHP leader Devlet] Bahçeli to engage in an approach implying that this issue [the release of the secret tapes] was managed from overseas. Then say its name clearly: What is overseas? What is going on overseas?” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told conservative television channel Kanal 7 in an interview late Monday.

Turkish religious leader Gülen, the head of one of the country’s most influential Islamic movements, has been living in the United States since 1999.

“You hold some people responsible for the [tape] incident. This is wrong. It has no meaning to hold others responsible for an internal conflict within the party,” Erdoğan added. “And why do you [Bahçeli] want their resignations? What you should do is to expel them.”

The MHP was hit with a third wave of a tape scandal on Saturday with the online release of more R-rated footage of two senior party members, Bülent Didinmez and İhsan Barutçu, with young female university students. Bahçeli blamed the government and the Gülen movement for the incident after the release of the footage.

In his interview with Kanal 7, the prime minister also reiterated that the tape scandal could not be considered as an “individual issue,” as he found it contrary to society’s moral values “to call such immoral issues ‘private’ and ‘an intervention in private life’ in a society where 99 percent [of the population] is Muslim.”

Responding to Bahçeli’s accusations using the website herkul.org, Gülen described the move as a “ruthless attack and aspersion.”

Without naming any names, Gülen said the community could only engage in self-defense and file a case for compensation in the face of such accusations but “would never engage in similar aggressiveness like them.”

Responding to criticism that it was late to address the issue, the Telecommunications Directorate, or TİB, said in a written statement Tuesday that it had taken a step within the judicial process and instructed the authorities to bar access to 68 websites that had posted the tapes.

Speaking at his party’s rally in Afyonkarahisar on Tuesday, Erdoğan criticized Bahçeli and main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for blaming his party, saying they attacked the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, instead of making self-criticism.

“We have avoided making this immorality into political material. Instead of engaging in self-criticism, they have blamed the AKP from the beginning. The AKP is not the pursuer of your dirty affairs,” he said. “First you should engage in questioning yourself. Instead of feeling embarrassed, they slander us. Can an illegitimate thing be private?”

Speaking at his party’s election rally in Burdur on Tuesday, Kılıçdaroğlu challenged the government over the tape scandal, saying his party would call the government to account for the incident if elected.

“Isn’t it immoral to govern the country supplied by illegal ways?” he said, noting that a hidden camera had also been placed at the CHP-run İzmir Metropolitan Municipality.

Speaking at the 143rd anniversary of the Council of State on Tuesday, the body’s president, Mustafa Birden, likewise expressed his concerns on the issue. He said the council could not understand the violations of private life through wiretapping and why the necessary measures have not been taken in the face of recent incidents.
May 10, 2011
SOURCE: Hürriyet Daily News