I'm talking about some details in Turkey today. That's where the devil in.
Sevan Nisanyan, a controversial Turkish-Armenian author, was one of them (above).
Nisanyan put his own feces in a jar and poured it over his ex-wife's head. Taraf didn't fire him, because he was still praising the AKP government.
He wrote fiery articles, insulting Ataturk without uttering one reasonable opinion. Taraf didn't fire him, because he was still praising the AKP government.
However, according to his own blog, Nisanyan is kicked out of the door after his latest article.
In that article, all he was doing was questioning the existence of God, which was contradictory to the AKP populism. That was where the newspaper administration started to censor Nisanyan and ultimately fired him.
So Nisanyan's bosses who welcomed his stance against his ex-wife and Ataturk, didn't tolerate even one word against the sanctity of their religions.
* * *
Taraf is the most interesting newspaper in Turkey.
They sell around 60.000, so they're just a detail in the vast panorama of the Turkish media.
But Taraf's influence has been much bigger than their sales.
They had several bombshell stories, especially about the Ergenekon and the PKK.
Coincidentally, these stories which are either based on Xerox documents or shadowy correspondents, have served only one purpose: Tarnishing the image of the Turkish army.
But why and how?
Because Taraf is the incognito mouthpiece of the leading Islamist brotherhood in Turkey, which is coiling itself up in the police organization.
The people with pro-government Islamist tendencies are the owners of Taraf. However, the showcase of the newspaper hides this fact. In order to do it, they employed many unbiased journalists and atheist columnists as well.
Sevan Nisanyan, a controversial Turkish-Armenian author, was one of them (above).
Nisanyan put his own feces in a jar and poured it over his ex-wife's head. Taraf didn't fire him, because he was still praising the AKP government.
He wrote fiery articles, insulting Ataturk without uttering one reasonable opinion. Taraf didn't fire him, because he was still praising the AKP government.
However, according to his own blog, Nisanyan is kicked out of the door after his latest article.
In that article, all he was doing was questioning the existence of God, which was contradictory to the AKP populism. That was where the newspaper administration started to censor Nisanyan and ultimately fired him.
So Nisanyan's bosses who welcomed his stance against his ex-wife and Ataturk, didn't tolerate even one word against the sanctity of their religions.
* * *
Taraf is just a devious detail in this puzzle of power struggle in Turkey.
And Nisanyan's dismissal is not a surprise for anyone who knows what Taraf actually is.
What more important is the big picture:
In that picture, Taraf is the perfect signifier of the nature of post-modern Islamism.
Just like the European far-right has transformed themselves into more politically correct entities today, the Islamists in Turkey, who revolted in military means in the past, have also changed.
They are cyclical democrats now, who are trying to seize the system from inside, instead of destroying it...
Remember: Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan had once announced that minarets are their bayonets, but then he proclaimed that he changed.
The Nisanyan incident may hint that there is still an uncompromising detail in the Erdogan puzzle.
As Prime Minister more recently said:
"Democracy is just a vehicle. You use it to go somewhere. And then you get off."
