Zaman: Wiretapping and slandering
Today’s Zaman, your gateway to Turkish news: Wiretapping and slandering
Politician: What is the political atmosphere like in Bolu?
Governor: Your job is not that easy. However, it wouldn’t be right to give up just because it is difficult.
Politician: Do you have the determined and careful human resources required to facilitate the political formation that will win the public over in the town?
Governor: Yes, we do, albeit small. It is necessary to know that we don’t have many people.
Politician: How do you view Bolu, in particular from the political perspective? What can be done?
Governor: Bolu’s base is the Republican People’s Party [CHP]. We can see that the CHP’s votes are growing — particularly in local elections. If a large group is established in Bolu, things could change for the better for the CHP to such an extent that the CHP may well win the elections.
This dialogue is from a conversation that took place between Önder Sav, the CHP secretary-general, and Mehmet Ali Serindağ, the former governor of Bolu, who has been relieved of duty through a recently enacted bylaw on governors. I should first of all note that this type of relationship and conversation should never take place between a political party official and the highest-ranking bureaucrat who represents the state in his province. It’s impossible for us to approve of either this dialogue or relationship. An understanding of public administration based on impartiality and a democratic culture never allow for such a relationship or dialogue.
Being a high-ranking CHP official, Sav’s conversation with a governor who is still in office as if this governor was a party official from the province and the governor sincerely adopting this role reveals the level of the symbiotic relationship known to exist between the CHP and the bureaucracy. If we remember that this party’s past is riddled with fascist practices such as appointing governors from among those who were also the heads of party organizations in the provinces, the gravity of the situation increases.
Without a doubt, these conversations cater to the suspicions and the claims that the CHP has ties to the bureaucracy, the judiciary and the military. It is a prevalent opinion that the CHP, which has repeatedly failed to win the right to represent people democratically by losing one election after another, has the power to mobilize all the military, civil and bureaucratic elements in line with its own political agenda. This is a valid enough reason for the public to anticipate a statement from the CHP regarding its deep reach into the state, particularly after the exposure of the above conversation, because this type of relationship evokes memories of the CHP despotism which is still fresh in our social memory, while strengthening the doubts that all the recent undemocratic bureaucratic and judicial interventions into the democratically elected political power have been made through the coordination of the CHP.
On the other hand, however unacceptable the content of this dialogue between CHP Secretary-General Sav and former Bolu Governor Serindağ may be, the coverage given to this dialogue in newspapers — in whatever fashion it may be — is unacceptable in terms of our democratic culture and individual rights. All illegitimate acts, such as illegal wiretapping, which violates the privacy of people and institutions, deserve — as much as the CHP’s illegitimate pretension to be the political power not based on public support — to be condemned in the harshest way possible.
However, I should not fail to note that the CHP’s statement that Sav’s office was wiretapped is but an unproven claim, because nothing so far has been found during efforts to uncover the source. This being the case, the CHP’s attempt to stir up winds of political terrorism and to transform the situation into a regime crisis based solely on its own claims is completely incomprehensible. What is currently in our hands is nothing but the conversation, which proves the constantly mentioned deep and organic bonds between the CHP and bureaucrats. And the authenticity of this conversation was proven by a speech delivered by CHP leader Deniz Baykal during a press conference held on Wednesday. Much as we can’t approve of the way it was obtained, we can comfortably state that this conversation has made it into the annals of history. With the exception of this concrete proof, the statements of the CHP, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the government do not go beyond being claims. Who is right or wrong will be determined at the end of the investigation launched by the chief prosecutor’s office.
Conversely, the claim of the Vakit newspaper, which has become a party to the incident by publishing the Sav-Serindağ dialogue, is not based on wiretapping. They say that they directly listened to the dialogue through a mobile phone conversation which Sav forgot to end. Executives at Vakit noted that they can prove their claim using Türk Telekom records upon a request by the chief prosecutor’s office.
It’s of utmost importance to state at this point that if it is found out in the investigation that the statements of Vakit executives are true, there will be no choice left for Baykal, who has left nothing negative unsaid and has slandered the government, the police and a certain segment of society, but to apologize and resign in a dignified way. We will see whether Baykal and his close staff will resign with dignity or continue doing politics at the cost of trampling it.
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