The “No” Side in Washington

At the August 30 Victory Day reception hosted in their ballroom by the Armed Forces, Attaché Brigadier General Murat Yıldırım and his wife Mrs. Yıldırım, my first target after shaking hands with Mr. and Mrs. Yıldırım, who were welcoming their guests at the entrance, was the open area at the end of the room. The difference between the room — in which the majority of the people were in uniform — and the back section was that most of the people here were in civilian clothing. Considering that discipline is the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of the military, this was admirable.

The reception was to begin at the time of the breaking of the Ramadan fast. As breaking fast also allowed smoking, dinner was fairly short. On my way back to the ballroom, I saw one of my colleagues whom I had not seen in a few weeks as he was coming down the stairs, and we met in the middle of the room. “It has been a while,” I said. “I just arrived,” he responded. Instead of watching over the city like me, he had been abroad in Europe. He had also visited Turkey on this trip. He responded to my question, “What is going on in the country?” with a very predictable answer: “The country has become completely introverted. Nobody cares about what is happening in the rest of the world. All anyone talks about is the referendum on September 12; Turkey is already in the election mode.”

My colleague had another observation. “You know how an issue is normally debated. People of opposing ideas come together and debate on the topic. But if this is what you think is happening in Turkey now, you are wrong. People go on television, and the first thing they do is accuse others of trying to overthrow the government, among other things. There is no actual debating going on — I could not watch any live television debate show for more than five minutes.”

Let me share with you my response to my friend’s question, “What has been happening here?” Actually, what is happening in the U.S. is similar to all that is happening in Turkey nowadays. President Obama can see nothing but the elections that will happen in November and really does not have much choice. In the midterm elections, the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate will lose. Obama’s biggest fear is losing the majority lead in Congress and becoming a “lame duck.”

America’s version of Turkey’s “Yes” and “No” sides are the Democratic/liberal segment and the far right. In the leadership of the Tea Party movement, the far right is using every opportunity to attack Obama over the mosque and Islamic center that is planning to be built in New York near ground zero. They do not care about the American Constitution, American Muslims or the reaction and damage they would trigger in the Muslim world. The debate about the Islamic center is both revealing about the Islamophobia in the United States and is also being used as campaign material by the conservatives to weaken Obama. A Tea Party event on Saturday once again proved that the far right is using the mosque issue as propaganda. Aside from Islamophobia, opposing Obama due to the color of his skin — in other words, the “racist” approach — was also observed. Glenn Beck, who is a leading member of the Tea Party movement and has shows on both Fox News and on the radio, organized the “Restoring Honor” rally with thousands of people attending at the Lincoln Memorial where Martin Luther King made his famous “I Have A Dream” speech just 47 years before. Despite Beck claiming that it is a coincidence that his rally was on the same day as the anniversary of this speech, he could not avoid being dubbed a “racist” when Sarah Palin, who was the vice presidential nominee of the Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, and who has become the symbol of the tea party movement, was the main speaker at the event.

Israel Is a Butterfly Whose Wings Are Trying to Be Ripped Off!

Obama and his speakers are trying to be rather careful and use cautious language against the “dangerous approaches” of the far right. Because Obama’s speech at the White House dinner given for the breaking of fasting — where he stated that Muslims have equal right as everyone else to practice their religion including building mosques — aggravated the debate rather than alleviating it, he had to readdress the issue and take a step back. In reality, all Obama had done was to reemphasize Muslims’ right to practice their religion while sidestepping the location debate. The decision to allow the building of a mosque or a center, no matter what it is called, is only up to the local government of the area. While some Jewish organizations are supporting the building of the Islamic Center in New York, the Anti-Defamation League, which is the Jewish organization that undeniably has the most influence on Congress, is against it, and therefore, Washington must use more cautious language.

A regular associate in the circle of mission representatives — in uniform and civilians — filling the ballroom at the reception was saying, “No one should expect anything from Obama until the elections are over.” He touched on Obama’s meeting which took place over the last week with Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu from the Turkish Department of State and responded to my questions: “Does the Israeli lobby still have the same position? Are there any developments [in] Congress?” by saying, “In the eyes of the lobby, Israel is a butterfly. … Even when the smallest thing happens, they wreak havoc, because they’re scared that ‘someone is going to rip [their] wings off.’ This needs to end. If Israel is a democracy, then democracies do not wage war with democracies. Turkey has lost nine civilians due to an attack in international waters. … Israel needs to understand this.”

The international committee in the United Nations is continuing its investigation and is expected to release its initial findings by Sept. 15. We must wait until then to see how much the Israeli government understands the situation. Let us wait and see.

We Met — It Was Our Pleasure!

In June 2007, when I left my job as a manager for the Yeni Şafak newspaper in Turkey and came to Washington, the accreditation for the newspaper by the Head of General Staff was still in place. Shortly after, the accreditation of Yeni Şafak by the Head of General Staff ended. In Washington, from where I had been reporting, the accreditation had been going on for three years. I had been running into our military representatives through various means, but I had not been receiving invitations for Victory Day receptions. The military attaché ended this practice this year.

When I was in Turkey or Washington, was I sad about the accreditation process? No. Was it important? Yes. It was especially important to me while I was in Washington, because as a reporter, it had to be. In Turkey, it is possible to use indirect sources to confirm military news or any news that needs confirmation. This is not possible if you are in Washington. If you cannot confirm an issue from a direct source, that means you are in trouble. For a journalist, being unable to confirm news that needs to be confirmed is like playing with a scorpion.

Ali H. Aslan, who has been representing the Zaman newspaper for over 10 years in Washington, was also one of the guests at the reception. We had the chance to shake hands and meet the Armed Forces Attaché Brigadier Murat Yıldırım. I also had the chance to converse with Mr. Yıldırım during the reception. It was a pleasure to meet him. … It is my hope that he enjoyed it as well.