Here I reveal a network of ill-intentioned bloggers who came up with the pseudo-concept of Gulen Charter Schools. Thank you visiting my website for true information, backed with facts and not goose feathers. I keep it real here, with facts, real people, real stories. There is No honking or quacking here - a merit of Goose Network.
Gulen Charter Schools is a new phrase coined by some groups with anti-charter sentiments. After seeing some successful charter schools such as Harmony Public Schools, thrive unprecedentedly, the people in those groups started a smear campaign a few years ago . This is against the nature of public schools. A charter school cannot have any connection or relationship with any religious organization. If it were, the state would never grant its charter.
I think such explanations have no effect on the attackers, because despite the fact that there is no religious education in those attacked charter schools, they still believe the schools are "indoctrinating" religion to the kids.
Bill Gates Helping Gulen Charter Schools?
Those people open blogs and websites to to defame high-flying schools who were able to close the achievement gap. On their websites, they make ridiculous accusations such as “Bill Gates wants to revive the Ottoman Empire”. Unfortunately, their discourse has a very racist and xenophobic tone.
A lot can be said about the reason behind those attackers, but as Harmony Schools Advocates, we believe that the video below well summarizes this Gulen Charter Schools concept. Watch and see how the attackers of Harmony Schools make themselves ridiculed.
"Dani Rodrik is an interesting guy who has ties with both Harvard University and Ergenekon Terrorist Organization. The latter is of course indirect, becayse his father-in-law worked for this underground, clandestine organization. He staunchly believes and defends that his father-in-law is innocent. In the past months, I published a few columns by the Armenian columnist Etyen Mahcupyan, who criticized Rodrik in many sound ways. This time, a letter provides a very nice answer for the guy."
After the Balyoz case was concluded (September 2012), I penned a seven-piece “Balyoz case judgments” series and reserved the final piece for statements by Mehmet Selim Yavuz, the son and defense lawyer of retired general Ahmet Yavuz, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison in the case.
These remarks by Selim Yavuz were particularly interesting: “I have been together with these 364 men [the Balyoz suspects] for three years, day and night. I have witnessed their conversations. I listened to them with objectivity. I listened carefully in search of any flaw in their statements. All have been saying the same thing for three years: that Balyoz is a lie and we have been picked as victims. You cannot possibly make all these 364 people who do not know each other tell the same lie for three consecutive years.”
The day I published these statements by Selim Yavuz (Oct. 30, 2012), I received an email message from a reader of mine.
My reader, who notes that his deceased father-in-law was one of the military servicemen involved in the March 9, 1971 “leftist” coup attempt and then acquitted in the relevant trials, addressed a letter to Selim Yavuz, asking me to forward this letter to him.
I forwarded the letter to Selim Yavuz and I closed this chapter, observing the condition made by my reader to keep the names confidential.
However, when I observed the role played by the "families" as part of propaganda activities, saying that the Balyoz case was based on "fabricated documents" and expressing belief in the absolute innocence of the suspects in the case, I sent a message to this reader and told him that with his permission, I would like to publish his letter to Selim Yavuz.
Upon receiving permission from my reader, whose name I am keeping confidential, I publish his letter, which I dedicate to Dani Rodrik, the son-in-law of chief suspect Çetin Doğan in the Balyoz investigation.
Dear Mehmet Selim,
When I got engaged to my wife, my father-in-law [an omitted part consists of detailed information on the identity of my reader and his father-in-law—A.G.] was in jail in connection with the Madanoğlu case. He was facing the death penalty. As you know, General [Cemal] Madanoğlu and his friends were charged with attempting a coup on March 9, 1971. If you look at the case files and the prosecutor's indictments in the Madanoğlu case, you would see all the details, as well as the name and mission of my father-in-law.
Let me make a long story short: All the people who were arrested stayed in jail for 9-12 months; some of them were tortured, but all were acquitted in the end.
During the trial and after the delivery of judgments, the defendants and their relatives noted and argued in every conversation that the case and the allegations were all fabricated, that the suspects were unfairly accused and that the people in jail were simply innocent. Not only this, we strongly believed for years that they were actually innocent. Even the people who were arrested sincerely stated in personal conversations that they were innocent and that they were wrongfully prosecuted.
It has been many years (20 years). We lost my mother-in-law in 1990; my father-in-law moved in with us. We lived together for eight years in the same house until his death. His friends used to visit him in our house to chat with him. I realized that these were the conversations of old friends who were around 70-80 years old. Perhaps because they were old and the past events were no longer important at all, they were speaking of the March 9, 1971 coup differently; sometimes they were making jokes. Yet before they started to talk, they were asking whether the son-in-law was trustable.
In short, I realized that the prosecutor's indictment in the Madanoğlu case was 100 percent true. The entire tape recording of Mahir Kaynak, who they argued had a mental disability, was also true; besides this, there were many other parts of the plan not included in the indictment. For instance, if the attempt had been successful, they would have removed the civilian government.
In other words, members of the family (his wife, two daughters and two sons-in-law) were just wrong, and the relatives of other defendants were also misled. And the entire nation was misguided and misinformed because they never mentioned or admitted it. If you pay attention, ilhan Selçuk denied [his guilt] until his death; he strongly argued that they were unfairly and unjustly arrested.
After these conversations, I asked my father-in-law about the whole matter. He said: “Son, we were staging a coup; this is not some sort of child's play. We swore on a gun: I and my friends would never talk; we would pretend that this never happened.”
Let us come to the acquittal of the military servicemen and the civilians in the Madanoğlu case. I asked this to my father-in-law: “If you had committed a crime that back then merited the death penalty, why were you acquitted in this case?”
He said: “We realized that things were not going well, that we are heading to death penalty. The military servicemen held a meeting where we decided to forward a message to the upper ranks. After a week, we were acquitted in the first hearing.”
I asked about the upper ranks to identify their names. He said: “Who could that be? They were Muhsin Batur and Faruk Gürler, who were also involved in the coup committee. We also forwarded our message to the president as well.”
Dear Mehmet Selim Yavuz... [the letter continues]
Believe me this is the case. You could investigate what I said and rigorously research this matter.
I believe in your sincerity. I am sure that you are writing what you assume true. And like my father-in-law, your father, Ahmet Yavuz, is a patriotic man who would sacrifice his life for this nation. And they did (if they did) what they did for these values, like things done in the past.
However, whether or not something is a crime under the current laws, I believe that whether it is ethically sound is a different matter. I wish you strength and patience.
Best regards,
Case of March 9, 1971…
I took the following excerpt from Yıldıray Oğur's column in the Taraf daily on Sept. 30, 2012, to serve as background information on the reader's letter.
“The indictment was based on the voice recordings and statements of a MİT agent, Mahir Kaynak, who was invited to join the junta as a bright academic. The defendants argued that this was a plot staged against them and dismissed all allegations. When Mahir Kaynak relied on the voice recordings, the defense was designed to invalidate these two strong pieces of evidence.
The TRT technicians who submitted a report to the court as expert witnesses on the authenticity of the voice recordings, noting that one word was repeated two times in the recordings, said that there might be some alteration in the recordings.
Four defense lawyers, relying on the expert report, argued that the recordings were fabricated and asked the court to dismiss them as evidence. The military court handling the case decided not to consider the voice recordings as evidence.
[…]
“Neurologist Gençay Gürsoy, who was heard in the court as a witness, said: ‘My personal view is that this person, during my examination, was unable to interpret and view the outer world with objectivity'.”
[…]
“The Madanoğlu case, in which 32 suspects were tried, was concluded on Oct. 2, 1974. The court panel ruled that the arguments and allegations of the prosecutor and the intelligence agency were insufficient and decided to acquit the defendants.”
*This article appeared in its original form in the Taraf daily on March 1, 2013.
The much-awaited Ergenekon has come to an end and dozens of people who are accused of planning to overthrow the legitimate government through a military coup got life sentences and many more. I think the Goose Network should think twice before blindly supporting those Ergenekon guys.
Turkey's former armed forces chief has been jailed for life for plotting to overthrow the government, after five years of trials involving officers, lawyers, writers and journalists.
Gen Ilker Basbug was among dozens of people convicted of involvement in the so-called Ergenekon plot.
Critics of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan have accused him of staging show trials to eliminate his enemies.
His supporters say the trials have pushed the military out of politics.
Gen Basbug, who led the military between 2008 and 2010, was among at least five generals to be jailed for life on Monday at a specially constructed courtroom west of Istanbul.
Courtesy of Dr. Kurt's blog on Gulen Charter Schools...
Several months ago, a breaking news appeared on some media outlets. According to that news, a Gulen-inspired school in Iran (!) was raided and 83 CIA agents (!) were arrested (!) in the school. It is a rare talent to be able make three mistakes in one sentence.
Of course, this "breaking" news was immediately picked up by ODA TV, who is also the zealous supporter of so-called Gulen Charter School concept in the US.
First, there is no "Gulen-inspired" school in Iran, because Iran, as the example of perfect democracy (!) never allows the Movement to open a school. Second, in this non-existent school, you can't hide 83 CIA agents. Of course, with no school and agents around, you can't arrest them. And here is the proof for this blatant lie:
This is the only one that I could find, because later on they deleted the news and apologized for their blatant lie. Here is their apology:
Here they say, "The Movement is right. That news was untrue. Unfortunately, ODA TV also made the same mistake." Below is the full text for their apology.
Robert Spencer & Pamela Geller Get Banned from Entering Britain
Two famous Islamophobes are banned from entering Britain. Hope the same happens to other Islamophobes like Gulen Charter Schools attackers such as Vanessa Kachadurian.
Eagle Forum's Gerstenschlager "Silenced" by Alma Allen
MerryLynn Gerstenschlager, the Vice President of Texas Eagle Forum, has been one of the Goose Network members for some time and her concerns at Texas House Public Education Committee about Harmony Public Schools were not shared by the committee members.
Rep. Alma Allen, D-Houston, says she has “a large Turkish community in my district and several Harmony schools in my district. I think they are fabulous. I don’t think they teach religion.”
Rep. Mark Shelton, R-Fort Worth, told Gerstenschlager the Harmony charter school in his district is immensely popular.
“They are lining up trying to get into that school. Parents are thrilled. I am just not hearing anyone saying that there’s some problem in the school related to the issues you are talking about,” the physician-lawmaker told her.
The full conversation between the three can be found here.
Westerville schools losing kids, funding to charters
03.04.2013, The Columbus Dispatch
Students are leaving Westerville schools at a rate that has alarmed district officials, spurring them to seek ways to draw students back and retain others. Almost 1,000 students have left to attend charter schools, private schools or other districts in Ohio over the past two years.
Frank Gaffney, a self-entitled Islamophobe, has just bit on granite by misinforming the public about so-called Gulen Charter Schools again. This came as a no surprise to me, because I got already acquainted with the mistakes of such half-ignorant people. Gaffney is one of them. I will give more information about his ignorance in the future, but for now, I will give you a snippet of a good read by a website named Gulen Charter Schools. Hope you enjoy it.
Every week we read about or hear a new “gaffe” about Fethullah Gulen and the Hizmet Movement he inspired. Most of these political, social and ethical faux pas have a common denominator: being intentionally made (sounds like an oxymoron?) and bogus. This week’s piece comes from the winner of the “Biggest Bogus Rumor of the year Award” Frank Gaffney (see the resemblance in his last name?). Gaffney has taken it upon himself to prevent a Loudoun County charter school application from being approved by the county’s education board. We all know how Gaffney feels about people who are not “like him,” and it’s ok for him to get involved in the political process. But this time he goes far beyond his regular shooting range and tries slanderous, inaccurate comments on the subject for a change (!). His piece appeared on the Washington Times, the notoriously conservative paper that is loosing its readership day by day.
60 Minutes, Fethullah Gulen and the End of Gulen Charter Schools Myth
A nice article by Dr. Kurt.
As a scholar studying the Hizmet Movement for more than a decade, I have opened this blog to clear some confusion/suspicion about Fethullah Gulen. My concern is not about the so-called Gulen Charter Schools, but rather for Mr. Gulen, who has no relationship or connection with any of the so-called Gulen (inspired) schools around the world (let alone the high achieving charter schools in America). Even if Fethullah Gulen was associated with Harvard or Oxford University, I would still object to that, because he himself would be the first person to do this. that is why, he never visits any of the schools he is claimed to inspire, nor does he have ownership or any other affiliation with any of them.
That is actually what makes the story of 60 Minutes very intriguing, because we see someone who constantly avoids associating himself with any of the educational institutions throughout the world. That is something rare in our American society. If we accomplish something, we fully take the credit for that accomplishment. But here we have someone who prefers self-exile and seclusion instead of publicity. Fethullah Gulen rarely talks to the media due to his health problems and "60 Minutes" was no exception. But even if he talks, he does not take the credit for the schools, charity works, and other activities of the Hizmet Movement.
That is also what baffles the producers of "60 Minutes". They probably thought that they would not be declined and it seemed that they were so close to their "target", but they just could not make it. We see a worldwide phenomenon, but the source of inspiration stays away from all the hustle and bustle. "There is a kingdom, but there is no king around." But the objection voiced in the media about Mr. Gulen's seclusion is not right, because Fethullah Gulen gave interviews to New York Times and Wall Street Journal earlier this year. In fact, he is not that secluded at all. He is not a shady figure, either. He is just "picky" in terms of giving interviews. Maybe he first considers the intention of the media outlet that tries to get an interview from him.
Meanwhile, let me also relate some of my observations on "60 Minutes" segment:
Some of the high achieving charter schools are associated with Fethullah Gulen, but we see no single evidence that would support that claim. I really wonder how such an alleged relationship is established by just uttering a few sentences. No official document and no interview with an administrator/teacher/parent/student/alumnus of these schools about this hypothetical connection. Isn't that weird?
Maybe that is why, it is not fair to put the name of Fethullah Gulen in front of some charter schools.
The choice of interview with Andrew Finkel was not the ideal one, because Mr. Finkel is a former columnist for Today's Zaman, one of the newspapers of the Movement. His job was terminated several months ago and this could easily be a conflict of interest. I do not think that Mr. Finkel could be impartial on this issue. Besides, Mr. Finkel's answer to a question about the Movement (if they were cult or not) was cut after he said "Yes, but...".
To define Hizmet Movement a "cult" is a misconception at best. First of all, as opposed to United States, there is almost no cult-like formation in Turkey except some extremely marginal groups whose members do not exceed a few hundred people. However, we are talking about a social global movement (not a religious one) whose membership exceeds millions. Hizmet Movement is not a cult-like Movement. Moreover, the degree of attachment people display is also very different. Some people are just sympathizers, while some people actively engage in the activities of the Movement. Certain individuals make donations, while some others dedicate their time to charitable works. There is no rite of initiation, ceremony, formal membership or official "acceptance" within the Movement. Also, the Turkish-Muslim volunteers of the Movement have the same Islamic worship styles. Then how can the producers imply a cult-like formation?
I also read several of the comments under the video and I especially liked some of them. One of the viewers mentioned the existence of two positive stories and the effort to combine these two different positive stories into a negative story. I agree with that viewer. This is nothing but an odd interpretation.
Anyway, let's turn back to the initial topic. In that "60 Minutes" broadcast, did you notice the simplicity of the room Mr. Gulen makes his internet talks for his guests? The picture above also reflects this simplicity. Does it look like the room of a super-rich person as claimed by some detractors? I think this is what makes Mr. Gulen different from other inspirational leaders. Mr. Gulen lives what he preaches. In his youth, he, as an imam, used to live in a shack for many years. Before the years spent in the shack (or a hut), he was staying by a window in the mosque he preached.
I believe even our closets are larger than his small window.
Top-notch School isn’t Marred by Loose Ties to Turkish Cleric
This news must be a surprise for the Goose Network members. Actually, it is more of a slap-in-the-face by the "Boston Globe" editorial. Gulen Charter Schools argument by the Goose Network guys has collapsed for good. Read it yourself...
SHOULD MASSACHUSETTS be afraid of Fethullah Gulen? That’s the question at the heart of the whispering campaign against the Pioneer Charter School of Science, a high-achieving public school in Everett whose loose connections to the influential Turkish religious figure came under heightened scrutiny when it sought state permission to expand to a second location in Saugus.
Gulen is a moderate Muslim cleric who emphasizes science and whose followers have started schools worldwide, including hundreds of charter schools in the United States. Pioneer’s director, Barish Icin, says the Everett school isn’t connected to Gulen, but some of the school’s choices suggest at least a casual link; the school has hired 16 Turkish science, math, or technology teachers with temporary visas, though only four are currently on the school’s staff. It has also contracted with a law firm tied to the Gulen movement.
But that doesn't really matter. Public schools should be judged based on their performance, and according to state statistics, Pioneer is doing an exemplary job. The school has received state awards for its high MCAS scores, which are significantly above statewide averages; when it sought to expand, many parents attested to the education their children at the grade 7-12 school are receiving. The school offers 200 days a year of instruction, almost a full month more than district schools. Of the 34 students in the school’s first graduating class last year, more than 30 were accepted to four-year colleges. If this is foreign interference in American education, maybe we need more.
Indeed, part of the point of charter schools is to provide a testing ground for unconventional educational approaches; schools are given wide latitude to set their own policies, as long as they adhere to basic guidelines. Importing Turkish teachers is about as unconventional as it gets. But the school broke no rules, the state has received no complaints about religious influence at the school, and its academic results speak for themselves.
Nationally, much of the controversy over Gulen-inspired schools has carried an undercurrent of xenophobia, as if the mere possibility of Muslim educators were inherently alarming. But educators of all religions can be inspired by their faith to help others. As long as they don’t discriminate against other religions, or try to inculcate their beliefs into schoolchildren, then it shouldn't be a concern. Unless such complaints arise, there is no reason to object to the Pioneer school, and the state made the right call by approving its expansion.
Etyen Mahcupyan continues to reveal the truth about Dani Rodrik, the renowned son-in-law of Cetin Dogan, prominent member of Ergenekon Terrorist Organization.
It is quite natural for a person to exhibit extra sensitivity and subjectivity toward a specific topic when it concerns his relatives. We can understand such a person if we come to accept that we should be more tolerant toward them and put ourselves in their place. At the beginning, many people in Turkey shared this approach for Dani Rodrik, a successful academic with international fame and a scholar known to be an advocate of democratic values. But he had come face-to-face with a very unexpected situation.
As a matter of fact, he wouldn't be expected not to be cognizant of what views or political opinions his own father-in-law held. Indeed, what his father-in-law, Çetin Doğan, the retired former 1st Army commander, did during the postmodern coup of Feb. 28, 1997, was unacceptable even to the least fervent supporters of democracy. But the Turkish public chose not to discuss these matters in detail so as to give Rodrik an opportunity to protect his prestige. But as it turned out, he hasn't had the sensibility to understand this, as he continues to walk on a path that might lead to the complete destruction of his reputation.
Actually, he has exhibited symptoms of his disease early on. It is sad to see an objective scientist bustle about along the narrow channels of kinship while he is supposed to be after the facts. I experienced this during a one-to-one e-mail exchange with him. After I wrote several articles assessing the investigation into the Sledgehammer (Balyoz) coup plan, he sent me responses via e-mail arguing that my approach to the matter was flawed, as there was a conspiracy against the generals who were arrested under the investigation.
To prove his case, he claimed that the members of the military were so well-trained, disciplined and meticulous that they wouldn't have made the factual errors found in the documents that have been used as evidence in the case. (Today, on the contrary, Rodrik claims that it is “manifest” that the contradictory points in question were “human errors.”) In one of these messages, Rodrik misspelled my surname as "Mahçupoğlu," perhaps due to an excessive emotional surge, and I hadn't placed much emphasis on this matter. But when he claimed that the members of the military wouldn't commit factual errors, I, referring to his misspelling of my surname, noted that if he, as a meticulous and knowledgeable person, could make such a grave error, it wouldn't be logical to argue that the members of the military couldn't make factual errors.
It may not be easy to adopt an objective position concerning a trial like Balyoz. For many, this trial represents an ideological confrontation in the first place, and they tend to wield a certain level of bias toward the politics of the ongoing trial. It is alleged that the court delivered a legally problematic verdict concerning the Balyoz trial and that many defendants were victimized during the litigation process. This may be true, but it is equally true that some members of the military were preparing to overthrow the government, that they developed a coup plan and that the senior members of this junta were therefore equitably punished. In this process, people like Rodrik acted, knowingly or not, as promoters of the neo-nationalist propaganda and eventually became part of the efforts to whitewash the coup mentality.
They focused basically on two arguments: First, the documents referring to the coup plan can be found on only three CDs used as evidence in the prosecution, and second, these three CDs were tampered with. Both of these arguments are true. But the heart of the matter is that these three CDs contained documents also found on other CDs, and the court didn't need three CDs to convict Doğan and his friends. The audio recordings of the war game seminar, accepted by the defendants, already indicate what their intention was.
If we read the journal entries of Cumhuriyet journalist Mustafa Balbay and former Land Forces Commander Adm. Özden Örnek, we naturally conclude that they had paved the groundwork for a military takeover. Rodrik chose to focus on inconsistencies in names and times in the documents used as evidence, claiming that these inconsistencies might be the work of conspirators. However, the General Staff was unable to discover a single member of this so-called network of conspirators who, Rodrik claimed, were able to penetrate the military and capable of modifying the documents hidden in a secret military cache.
But there is an interesting possible corollary to what Rodrik is suggesting: The inconsistencies in the documents used in the case suggest that someone could have had access to them even in 2009, but we don't know who tampered with them. Broadly speaking, the possibility is equally strong that either the conspirators or coup perpetrators could have done the tampering. But Rodrik claims that the suggestion that coup perpetrators could have done so is a lie and, in his blog, he calls me a liar. He thinks that by calling one of the possibilities a lie, he can make his own suggestion the correct one.
It is a pathetic situation, particularly for a person who advertises himself as a scholar.
Although the Sledgehammer (Balyoz) trial, in which the defendants stood accused of attempting to overthrow the democratically elected government in 2003, was concluded on Sept. 21 by the İstanbul 10th High Criminal Court at the 108th hearing of the case, debates surrounding the Sledgehammer trial still continue. This is why there is merit in summarizing the major developments in the case.
But I would first like to touch upon two important points: First, we see that the court's decision concerning the sentences of the defendants (especially the low-ranking officers) varies from person to person and is not consistent. The second is that the intricate background of the Sledgehammer (Balyoz) coup plan is linked to many other coup attempts. The journals kept by Özden Örnek and Mustafa Balbay, the Ergenekon terrorist organization, the Council of State attack, the murder of Hrant Dink, the murder of Christian missionaries at the Zirve publishing house in Malatya, the murder of priest Andrea Santoro in Trabzon, National Intelligence Organization (MİT) reports, the statements of the General Staff and the content of documents found under the floor tiles at the Gölcük Naval Base are the major building blocks of this background. It is possible that this picture had an impact on the court's decision but we need to underline that the picture is "real" and that these are not individual incidents. Now let's turn to the Sledgehammer facts.
1) In early 2003, a seminar was held at the 1st Army Headquarters and the participants staged a war game. However, the content of the seminar was changed and the participants focused on a plan to eliminate internal enemies under the pretext of external threats. (The prosecutor claimed that the seminar was held without permission from the Land Forces Command, and low-ranking officials provided incomplete or incorrect information to their superiors. On the other hand, the defense lawyers claimed that although the content of the seminar was not approved by defendants' superiors in the first place, the report on the details of the seminar was prepared and presented by their clients to their superiors.)
2) After the exposure of the Ergenekon terrorist organization, 19 CDs containing voice recordings of the seminar were leaked to the press. The CDs numbered 11, 16 and 17 list the strategies to be used for provocations and sabotage and the names of the officials tasked with these jobs. The other CDs do not contain this kind of information. The prosecutor claimed that these are the documents which were not discussed but used as presentation material during the seminar. They also added that these lists could not have been prepared without the permission of the officials mentioned in the lists. While some of the defense lawyers claimed the low-ranking officials were not sufficiently informed about the plans of their superiors, others have argued that all these documents are fabricated.
Of course these two things affected the court's decision concerning the case, but they were not the real matter of controversy.
3) Many of the CDs contain information which was added to CDs later on, such as the names of foundations and companies established after 2003. (While the prosecutor claimed that the coup plotters might have updated the information on the CDs, the defense said that this was evidence of a fairly comprehensive plot against the defendants.)
4) There were some anachronisms in the documents which were deemed reliable by the prosecutor. (The prosecutor said that the same anachronisms in the 2003 documents also exist in the other documents described as criminal and that this situation also explains inconsistencies found in other documents. Claiming that these anachronisms are a result of human error, defense lawyers demanded they be separated from the previous documents.) Actually, this observation indicated that the documents were changed, but there was much debate surrounding who changed them. But in the meantime, something unexpected happened.
5) The same documents were on a hard drive which was found hidden under the floor tiles of the Gölcük Naval Command. The password of some of the documents on disc No. 5 from Gölcük was the same as the one for the computer of the major who was in charge of the secret cache in Gölcük. (The prosecutor considered it conformation of the coup plans, but the defense lawyers described it as part of a fairly comprehensive plot against their clients.)
This development supported the claims of the prosecutor because the documents in Gölcük were found in a storage area in the counter-intelligence section of the naval base, where security was very tight, and there was a major who was in charge of the secret cache in Gölcük and had access to many documents. The defense lawyers claimed that security was not very tight in the counter-intelligence section of the naval base and that anyone who had access to the hard disk could have forged any document.
The assumption of the defense lawyers can be considered an option, but they do not have even a single piece of evidence identifying those who planned the conspiracy against the military. This claim is based on the presumptions of the defense. On the other hand, there is the intricate background, a seminar whose content has been changed and computers assigned to specific officials. As for the anachronisms, unfortunately, they do not indicate a conspiracy against the military. They could be human error, as Çetin Doğan's son-in-law, Dani Rodrik, has claimed, or the efforts of some coup plotters who are attempting to pervert judicial processes.
Now you decide which is more convincing. Is the Sledgehammer plan a conspiracy against the military or a coup attempt prepared by the military?
Just hours after my article that referred to Dani Rodrik was posted on the Internet, Rodrik issued a response in his blog "Balyoz Davası ve Gerçekler" (Balyoz Trial and Facts). Apparently urged by a sense of duty, Rodrik naturally didn't want to lose any time in correcting my “misstatements.”
At the beginning of the blog post, three hypotheses are stressed. First, he says that the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) plan was not discussed in the 1st Army seminar held in 2003. There are similarities between some of the discussions at the seminar and phrases used in the coup documents, but these similarities "could have been easily introduced by those who fabricated the documents." Second, he claims that Çetin Doğan, the former head of the 1st Army and Rodrik's father-in-law, did not lie to his military superiors about what occurred at the seminar. He ended up going with a version of events that "differed from the version his superiors had asked for," but it "was distributed to his superiors beforehand." Third, Rodrik maintains that the seminar did not refer to a "coup" or "who would come to power following it." All of this information can be found on the evidential CDs. Rodrik tries to create a protective framework for his father-in-law. He prioritizes the voice recordings about the seminar, but trivializes the evidential documents. At the same time, since he knows this wouldn't secure sufficient protection for Doğan, he not only suggests that those documents could have been planted by "fraudsters," but also attempts to prove that Doğan's superiors have taken part in the crime. He does not address the fact that the “possibility” that the documents in question could have been planted by fraudsters does not automatically prove that these same documents were not created by Doğan and his cronies. Rodrik avoids any discussion of why Doğan's superiors attempted to prevent Doğan from disclosing the seminar records if there is no incriminating content, or why Doğan insisted on his version of the full scope of events or whether he communicated the content of that seminar to his superiors without any change. We should understand why Doğan acts this way: If you set out with the intention of diverting people from the facts, you will naturally not be eager to uncover the facts.
Rodrik's blog post then enumerates various arguments in response to my article. But first let me make a correction: Rodrik argues that the General Staff has acknowledged that they had the originals of some of the Balyoz documents, but that they are not related to coup plans. However, the General Staff had merely declared that not "all" of the Balyoz documents fall within its area of responsibility and that some plans which were part of the Balyoz coup were not in its archives any longer when the court's request was made. It provided the names of those documents that were not in the archives, and in so doing, the General Staff indirectly accepted the fact that the documents that it didn't name could have been in its archives. The General Staff has also not refuted the documents belonging to the major who was in charge of the secret cache in Gölcük. Unfortunately, we don't have any dignified reason for assuming that Rodrik is not capable of correctly reading even a simple General Staff statement.
On to Rodrik's reasoning: We have three interconnected assumptions: (1) "The files on the disputed CDs also exist on the authentic CDs, the veracity of which has not been challenged by the defendants," but the fraudsters could have planted them on the disputed CDs. (2) The documents in Gölcük were found in a storage area in the counter-intelligence section of the naval base, where the security was not very tight. Since many documents could be leaked to the outside, it is possible that some documents could likewise be brought inside. (3) Hard drive no. 5 from Gölcük was not password protected. Some documents were password protected, but coup documents were not. Therefore, he concludes, anyone who had access to the hard disk could have forged any document.
In other words, from Rodrik's perspective, the military has such a poor security system and such an undisciplined and heedless mentality that anyone can forge the military's documents. If they could do it, then we can assume that they have done it. If we can assume this, then Çetin Doğan is innocent. Well, let us suppose that the documents have been forged, but then how on earth is it possible that no military official has realized it? After the forgery, hasn't anyone had access to them? Or is that they have had access to them and realize what's in them, but they don't care? Rodrik fails to follow the trail of his own reasoning, and therefore he feels obliged to rely excessively on the possibility that there could have been an imaginary criminal.
If coup documents were forged by fraudsters, then how can we explain the anachronisms? Rodrik has an extremely humane, tolerant response to this. "They are isolated instances that obviously crept in as a result of human error," he says. Moreover, he says this in an effort to prove that there was no systematic updating of those documents. That is, there was no systematic updating because anachronisms were clearly the result of human error. Supposing that the anachronisms in the 2003 documents were the result of human errors made by the members of the military, how can he argue that the anachronisms in the “disputed documents” said to have been prepared in 2009 are not the result of the human errors made by the members of the military? Based on the anachronisms in CD no. 11, how can he claim that there was a conspiracy against Çetin Doğan?
When the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in the elections held in early November 2002, the military decided to take some action. In the following months, Çetin Doğan, the former head of the 1st Army, sent faxes where he made analogies between the AKP's election victory and the Nazis coming to power; he sent these documents directly from his office.
The height of boldness was on display when the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) coup plan was discussed. The content of a military seminar were modified and Doğan lied to his military superiors about what actually occurred. The former army head tried to prepare the groundwork for a coup by causing turmoil and social upheaval by spreading believable lies. In a seminar document, the plotters also identified who would come to power after the coup.
When the Balyoz plan was revealed and taken to court, a surprise figure appeared: Dani Rodrik, a famous economist who is also Doğan's son-in-law, argued that the evidence was fabricated and even wrote a book on the matter. According to his argument the accusations were based on three CDs whose contents were manipulated. In the CDs dated 2004, names of organizations and places created after the CDs were made were identified. Rodrik considered this a great flaw, proving that the CDs were manipulated; he argued that there was a conspiracy to set Doğan up. He said he did not endorse the guardianship role of the army, adding that he strongly believed that the truth should be revealed.
But now we have adequate information that would satisfy Rodrik. First, we now know that the information on these three CDs is also included on the other CDs without any changes or modifications. Second, the copies of the modified CDs were also found in the search carried out in the “cosmic room” of the military compound in Gölcük; it was unrealistic to think that these CDs were planted there by conspirers. Defense lawyers had hard disk no. 5 examined by experts in the US; the experts concluded that many documents on the hard disk were saved in 2009, but seemed to have been created in 2004. This pointed to a conspiracy but nobody asked the real question: Who was responsible for the conspiracy? And then the final, fatal discovery was made: The personal password of Capt. Yakar was the same as the password of hard drive no. 5. There was a deliberate manipulation; however, the conspiracy was staged not by the conspirers who wanted to put Doğan into a difficult position, but by his colleagues.
There was only one possible explanation for the deliberate modifications that caused contradictions in the documents: The coup plotters were constantly updating their plans and in turn making changes to their documents, while waiting for an opportunity to stage a coup; additionally they also purposefully created some minor contradictions in the documents to protect themselves from prosecution. When the investigation was initiated, a respected figure other than the defendants needed to explore these contradiction and raise doubts because only if done by an outsider would it serve the argument that they were being set up and thereby, undermine the prosecution. Perhaps his son-in-law was the first person Doğan thought of for this service. Having an internationally renowned academic prove the existence of a conspiracy through scientific investigation would offer great psychological support for Doğan and his friends, and it would become possible to put pressure on the court. However, things did not go as they had hoped. The documents seized in Gölcük, the modifications made by people who were responsible for the protection of these documents and the fact that the General Staff indicated they had some of those documents, which were supposed to have been under protection, ended the era of dreaming.
Perhaps Rodrik dedicated himself to the scholarly inquiry into the relationship between democracy and economy. The recent developments should be illuminating enough for a scholar who would want nothing but the truth. Unfortunately, you cannot remove the father of the person you wed from the picture. While looking for conspirers all around, you might suddenly realize that you have been set up.
My Strictly Personal Criteria for Gulen Charter Schools
This piece was penned almost two years ago, but I still find it hilarious. I am gonna put my own addition, too, but let's read the piece first...
We are all quite sure that the weird claims about so-called Gulen Charter Schools have been proved fallacious. You can see this by checking some of the recent critics of so-called Gulen Charter Schools. They are very silent these days. Knock on wood :)
I quickly realized the fallacious nature of these claims after reading a few of them, but some people's aggressive attacks on these high-performing charter schools can make anyone very suspicious. Whenever there is a good news or (bad news) on the national level praising or defaming those charter schools, there is always someone ready to defame the schools in question with his/her comments. Anyway... You are already familiar with this story.
On the other hand, some things should be clarified. For example, what if someone decided to establish a charter school named "Gulen Charter School"? Would it be considered a Gulen Charter School as well? I mean the criteria to become a Gulen Charter School are very ambiguous. For those who will open a new charter school, I can proudly and gladly add some criteria in order to qualify their charter school a Gulen Charter School. At the end of the day, they will have lots of free publicity. Remember any publicity is good publicity.
Let me bring some of'em to the table:
1) The first rule to be qualified as a Gulen Charter School, the school perform high. Good test scores or closing the achievement gap is one of them.
2) The school must have some teachers from overseas. That way, you could easily be identified as Gulen Charter Schools even if your teachers have no idea of who Gulen is.
3) Everything related to construction etc. should cost cheaper than the national average. That way, you can easily be pointed as a Gulen Charter School who tries to purchase everything cheaper than the market.
4) Make your parents happy. When they get happy, the attackers of your school will find nobody to get help and eventually they will beg some assistance from the elected officials, people who have never been to your school or biased journalists that would visit your school for the sole purpose of creating havoc in the media.
5) Find a few disgruntled teachers who has recently left your school. Help him/her to piss you off. Find a journalist lover for him/her so that s/he could "expose" everything.
Congratulations! You have become a Gulen Charter School.
Not a bad idea, right?
Here comes my own addition:
Get some federal money from the Department of Education. Since the quarter of our nation believe that our President is Muslim, then they will accuse the ones who have been qualified to federal money of being Muslim.
On seeing this photo, I immediately remembered the funny awkward moment about Ozgur Cengiz (a.k.a. Vanessa Kachadurian), who accidentally shared a photo from her personal blog. Considering herself a Goose Network member for her holy cause (e.g. coining the term "Gulen Charter Schools" and attacking all well-doing charter schools), Ozgur Cengiz, with her Turkish-looking name, fails to speak Turkish and uses Google Translate to utter something in Turkish. Eventually, she embarrasses herself.
Documents Reveal How Military Carried out Internet Campaign
Credits: Gulen Charter Truth.
This interesting article is from Sunday's Zaman.
Documents retrieved from computers of the Information and Support Unit of the General Staff clearly reveal how a pro-coup junta nested within the Turkish military, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), has engaged in propaganda to discredit the government and faith-based groups in the eyes of the people.
The documents are currently being examined by a group of computer experts at the İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court, which is involved in a trial against anti-government websites allegedly established by the military. The General Staff recently sent hard disks of its computers, used by the Information and Support Unit between 2005 and 2009, upon a request from this court. After examining the documents, the computer experts prepared a preliminary report about their findings and sent it to the İstanbul court. The court is now awaiting a final report from the experts.
Weekly news magazine Aksiyon has devoted its latest cover story to details emerging from the preliminary report. According to the report, the documents show that the pro-coup junta carried out three kinds of propaganda against the government and faith-based organizations: white, gray and black. In military terms, white propaganda seeks to inform people. Black propaganda, on the other hand, works to discredit something or someone. And gray propaganda is a mixture of the two.
Special unit to fight ‘harmful elements’
According to the documents, the TSK set up a unit to carry out the propaganda campaign against groups or individuals that the military thought were harmful to its existence. This unit was established in the 1950s and had branches both in the Special Warfare Department of the TSK and the General Staff’s department of intelligence. The documents said the unit did not initially work effectively in the years after it was established, but it began to be more active as of 1980 when the military staged a coup d’état and set up some institutions, such as the National Security Council (MGK), to put the civilian will under the control of the armed forces. The unit was called the Information and Support Unit in 1995. “Even though the unit carried out some effective operative and tactical activities at those times [after 1995] when acts of terror and religious fundamentalism reached their peak, it failed to turn into an establishment to act in line with the national strategy and in the light of science. And its scope of psychological warfare has been further narrowed since 2002 as part of plans to curb the role and effectiveness of the TSK in the social and administrative areas. And the psychological warfare unit [or the Information and Support Unit] has become a formation taking passive measures [against acts of terror and religious fundamentalism] and failing to even protect the dignity of its name,” according to the documents.
The latest activity of the Information and Support Unit of the General Staff’s Mobilization Department is the setting up and running of a number of websites to support the unit’s propaganda campaigns against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government and civilian groups. A deepening investigation into the websites shows that the unit, led by jailed Col. Dursun Çiçek, established 42 websites to back their psychological warfare campaign against civilian groups they deemed “religious fundamentalist,” “separatist,” “pro-AK Party” and “anti-TSK.” Former Chief of General Staff retired Gen. İlker Başbuğ was arrested in 2012 as part of the investigation.
Documents retrieved from the hard disks of the General Staff also included information gathered by the military staff about the Hizmet movement inspired by internationally renowned Turkish and Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. According to one such document, the movement is well respected among the people in Turkey because “its followers stay far away from conflicts or clashes with others, serve peaceful purposes, live in harmony with other groups and do not seek to work against the interests or welfare of others.” “There is a widespread conviction [among people] that the Gülen group [as the Hizmet movement is referred to by some circles in Turkey] poses no threat to Turkey,” said the document.
In the documents, the General Staff’s Information Support Unit discussed how to bring the financial sources of the Hizmet movement under control so that the movement would be unable to work. The documents also suggested that a conflict that would emerge for leadership after Gülen dies would lead the movement to collapse.
In attempts to prevent the Hizmet movement from working, the General Staff suggested that its harmony with the US and other countries should be damaged. “The US should end its policy of supporting moderate Islam, documents and required information should be seized and shared with the media to show the real faces of Gülen followers to the people, and a widespread conviction should be created in Turkey and Muslim countries that the movement is controlled by the US and serving the purpose of imperialism,” the document notes and adds that schools and other educational institutions currently operating in roughly 50 countries worldwide should be shut down.
The documents seized from the hard disks also feature plans by the General Staff to launch a propaganda campaign to allege that the Hizmet movement and its followers are the driving force behind some ongoing trials in Turkey that aim to cleanse the country of anti-democratic formations.
“Propaganda should be spread that the news [of anti-coup investigations] is leaked to the media by Gülen followers who are nested in the police force and that there is a large number of senior officers in the police force,” according to one of the documents. The same document also reveals plans to discredit the investigations against clandestine networks nested in various state bodies, an alliance that is often referred to as the “deep state.” “We should spread claims that people captured as part of the ongoing fight against the deep state are indeed too weak to be members of the deep state and that the deep state in fact has nothing to do with those weak people, that Gladio is controlled by the US, that the deep state [in Turkey] was rooted out with Turkey’s alliance with NATO, that groups, individuals and institutions that seek to protect national rights have become [by their opponents] a center of accusations and that the US has helped the pro-Gülen formation infiltrate the police force.”
The General Staff, at this point, sought the help of some media outlets to help it spread those claims. Officers at the General Staff wrote news stories and columns to downplay the investigations launched against coup plotters and the deep state and sent them to some newspapers to publish them as if staff members at those newspapers wrote them. “The said campaigns are being carried out by sending documents to columnists, newspaper administrators, editors-in-chief and civil servants via e-mails that feature an imaginary username and e-mail addresses,” one of the documents retrieved from the hard disks of the General Staff indicates.
‘Less than psychological warfare’
Such activities were, however, not psychological warfare, according to the General Staff. “Having a place in the media [creating news reports and columns published by some newspapers] does not mean launching psychological warfare. Carrying out psychological warfare requires us to make our activities in a manner to impact the opinions, feelings and stance of the target group.”
In one other document, the General Staff complains that websites are not an effective means to carry out a propaganda campaign because it is very easy for computer experts to find out who set up and administered the websites. “The virtual network is an area where covert and semi-covert psychological warfare methods may effectively be applied. It is not appropriate for open methods. For this reason, we are carrying out white propaganda campaigns on our websites. And this decreases the yield we may derive from the websites [and propaganda campaigns]. Websites run by us are subject to bureaucratic transactions, and we always face the risk of being exposed as the administrators of those websites.”
The documents go on to state that the General Staff sought to cooperate with secularist civil society groups and individuals who also oppose the trial against Ergenekon, a clandestine criminal network accused of working to overthrow the government, in attempts to discredit the trial in the eyes of the people. The documents indicate the General Staff should prepare books and brochures about the risk of rising religious fundamentalism in the country and send them to those civil society groups. “In addition, important writings and opinions [denouncing the Ergenekon trial] could be sent to opinion leaders, editors-in-chief of newspapers, leading columnists, civil society organizations and websites of those organizations and deputies,” the documents add.
