Hello 3rd World, Any Seats Free ?

[LeftEyeNine]

Well the thing is Erdogan et al. are modern-er "spin-off" from Necmettin Erbakan's -the pivotal Islamist post-Republic era politician- movement, that's why they were "denounced" by Erbakan long before his death.

The newer movement basically formed around Erdogan, President Abdullah Gül and deputy prime minister Bülent Arınç who were energetic and had a "cause" against secular Kemalism which propelled them even further, however without any real cadre to fill in the breaucratical and technical positions opened up as AKP won the elections as heavily that granting them to be able to found the government by themselves. Therefore, so as to fill such positions of power requiring skills and education, AKP allied with Gulen's "hizmet" movement which is an oddly well-spread (owns "Turk schools" in 150+ countries) and devoted group of well-educated non-West-hater Islamic group led by Fethullah Gülen -a former imam with such a charisma that his words are taken the sole truth by his followers under any circumstances.

However as far as Erdogan's extremely pragmatist world view goes, the marriage came to a silent end in 2012 when judges -considered Gulenists- summoned Hakan Fidan -head of MIT (Turkish secret service) allegedly to have brokered negotiations with PKK in Oslo. The allegations would directly lead to PM himself, so all of a sudden he ordered a bill to be passed which eliminated any possibility of interrogation of MIT employees without the consent of PM.

The cracks of the relationship between the (former) allies became more apparent in the following times. PM is a relentless character so he hit (back) at the Gulenists -known as "Cemaat" here- from their most vulnerable nerve, the private coursehouses (it is a giant business sector since the Turkish education system is based on qualification exams for schools at different grades). He called for the closure of private coursehouses claiming that it was "hurting the education system badly". The reaction was instant and lethal -on 17th of December, four ministers (one of them which was the minister of internal affairs, top responsible for police force) and their sons as well as the director general of Halkbank (state-owned bank) were summoned for trials on allegations of money-laundering, transfer of embargoed Iranian funds, corruption and bribery. The second wave of summonings included Bilal Erdogan, PM's son very deeply involved in various businesses and the front name in the oversized and unaccountable welfare of Erdogan family in recent years. His call-up was prevented via police force (probably ordered to do by himself in person) refusing to comply with the public prosecutor's orders and the huge circulation of police force topping at almost 10.000 policemen followed the "resistance". Because certain policemen and prosecutors were claimed to be under orders/suborned by "parallel state" -a term Erdogan coined for Gulenists integrated into the bureaucratic system.

The harsh measures indeed prevented the trials for some time and after these "measures", 4 ministers quit from the government. Minister of Environment and Urbanizing resigned saying "whatever I did, it was by direct orders and under knowledge of his (PM). He should resign too.". The Gulenist ex- and in-charge-by-then ministers/parliamenters showed themselves one after another, criticizing the management of the party or quitting. PM called them "saltcellars" -a slang used for people who are ineffective by themselves and subordinates.

Consequently, the hitback from the Cemaat was as fierce as it could be -disguised and never openly firing as always though. Lots of legality-disputable technical eavesdropping records that include conversations of PM, his son, former minister of justice, Reza Zarrab (individual claimed to be used in transfer of earnings to Iran), PM's consultants and businessmen were leaked to the internet via certain Twitter accounts such as @haramzadeler, @bascalan etc. The recordings spoke of unparallelled amounts of bribery, clearing of personal funds following December 17 shockwave, pressure and forced self-censorship on certain newspapers and TV channels, illegal/unethical actions against the possibility of trials, vulgarity and even prostitution as a means and so on. Also another Twitter account called as @fuatavni appeared, leaking lots and unbelievable confidential information from PM and his surrounding. This latest account claims 25th of March to be the time for "the peak of the leaks". The leaks called "manipulative" by the government caused PM to rage about internet; he recently told "Twitter or whatever, we will eradicate it" and approved the possibility of banning of Youtube and Facebook following the elections if needed.

So fares the ambience of upcoming local elections to be held on 30th of the month. The tension between the political parties and the society itself is higher than ever. Everyday we watch news of people clashing in the streets either provoking or fighting each other over their political preferences.

There you go, as of yesterday, Turkey made its name into the history by banning Google DNS -a widely used DNS to circumvent the ban. Even VPNs fail from time to time. Banning the internet is not a fantasy for us anymore.