Mevlüt the Barber

Things went into a tailspin after the loose-lipped US Ambassador Tom Barrack said that Trump would give Tayyip Erdoğan what he needs: legitimacy.

A debate over "legitimacy" has been ongoing ever since.

Since that day, almost everyone has picked up the instrument to play their own tune.

And I was reminded of Mevlüt the barber.

In the early 1990s, he worked in a shop on the corner of Ankara's famous Bestekar Street, leading up to Tunalı Hilmi.

Back then, there were no crazy entertainment venues, luxury kebab shops, new-style taverns, boutique coffee shops, or 'Irish pubs' around. If you don't count the heavyweights like Rumeli and Kebap 49, there were just one or two picnic spots, toast shops, and buffets trying to survive by delivering to workplaces... That was it!

The shop where Mevlüt worked was extremely modest, fitting the atmosphere of the street. Three chairs and his boss, along with himself...

But interestingly, it felt like all the gossip of the capital city revolved there. Whatever was being discussed in the political corridors of Ankara, Mevlüt somehow heard about it.

Among his customers, besides politicians, were numerous bureaucrats of every level—from undersecretaries to general managers, department heads to experts—as well as judges, prosecutors, journalists, and foreign diplomats. He didn't show it much, but some retired MİT agents also came to him for a shave.

Think of it like Rick's bar in the movie Casablanca... Just missing the grand piano and Sam. Instead of drinks, there was strong tea, and linden tea in the winter.

For some reason, people's tongues would loosen when they sat in the barber's chair. Mevlüt would record everything he was told in his mind, and not only that, he would question the why, the wherefore, and the how. Most of the time, he would confirm these things with other customers he thought were relevant to the issue. Since he was curious about the ins and outs of things, he didn't neglect tabloid-like news, such as which politician had how many lovers, which MP was cheating on his wife, or which bureaucrat was living in a "common-law" relationship with whom.

It must have been the first days of January 1994 when I went to him for a shave.

As soon as I sat in the chair, he said, "Brother, they are going to make Tayyip Erdoğan the Prime Minister of Turkey in the future."

I gave him a look that said, "Where did you come up with that, Mevlüt?" Knowing his nature, I thought he wouldn't talk nonsense, but what he said didn't mean much to me at the time.

The political atmosphere in Ankara was completely different. The DYP-SHP coalition had, so to speak, made a mess of things. The economy was about to collapse.

Before long, the pot would boil over on April 5th.

Moreover, the local elections hadn't been held yet, and no one knew what would come out of the ballot box.

Tayyip Erdoğan was the Istanbul Provincial Chairman of the Welfare Party (Refah Partisi) at the time. We guessed that Erbakan would nominate him for Metropolitan Mayor; he had a charisma within the Islamist wing, but according to public opinion polls, the highest vote the Welfare Party could get was around 20 percent.

In other words, there was no point in giving Tayyip Erdoğan more importance than necessary under the conditions and circumstances of that day.

Still, I pressed him, asking, "Who said that?"

He didn't answer, just mumbled, "America wants Tayyip Erdoğan. If he becomes Prime Minister, he won't go against America's word."

I didn't prolong the conversation; I said a few sentences to the effect that if Erbakan's student tried to get that close to America, the Milli Görüş base would excommunicate him, and I closed the subject.

The rest is history. The Welfare Party exploded in the local elections. Tayyip Erdoğan became the Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor with 25 percent of the vote.

Towards the summer months, while talking to Sabri Canbeyli, one of the well-informed journalists of Ankara, he slipped in the sentence, "The Americans are very interested in Tayyip. They have assigned a diplomat in the Istanbul Consulate General who deals with political affairs just to be in contact with Tayyip," and alarm bells started ringing for me.

Sabri Canbeyli had good relations with the Ministry of Interior and intelligence officers. I could guess he wasn't blowing smoke.

Clearly, he had received information from someone.

Mevlüt immediately came to my mind. I thought, "Could it be?" Had he heard some important things and hesitated to tell me?

Then I went to do my military service; I don't know what happened, but when I returned to the profession eight months later, whoever I spoke to who I knew received news from deep circles, I heard that America was preparing Tayyip Erdoğan for the Prime Ministry.

It didn't take long; Erbakan emerged victorious from the 1995 election and took the helm of the government in 1996. But it didn't last long. After the February 28 process and so on, we saw that America was no longer playing it secretly, but openly betting on Tayyip Erdoğan.

In fact, at the July 4th reception in 1999, an American diplomat chatting with journalists said in public, "We do not ignore our commitments. With our support, he can serve Turkey's political stability."

It followed; the AKP was founded in 2001. It emerged as the first party in the 2002 election. They hosted him at the White House even when he wasn't even an MP. In 2003, he was elected as an MP through a thousand and one tricks and became Prime Minister.

That is, exactly nine years after Mevlüt the barber told me...

Now the opposition is thundering, if not raining, saying that the source of legitimacy is the national will, that Trump's approval cannot be the source of legitimacy, and so on.

Let no one fool anyone; political Islam has been in power for nearly a quarter of a century with support from across the Atlantic; the people of my country have gone to the ballot box knowing this until now and cast their votes accordingly.

Tayyip Erdoğan never felt ashamed; he fortified his voter base with every single photo frame from the White House.

It is no secret that the AKP is a project party; the testimonies and statements of Abdurrahman Dilipak from their own neighborhood and Erol Mütercimler from the other neighborhood regarding this issue are on social media. Anyone who wants to can look. No one has come out and denied it to this day.

Now what happened, they suddenly started to stir things up.

Actually, the whole issue is that a greedy businessman in the US Presidential office sees the lawlessness and injustices that Tayyip Erdoğan has committed to stay in that seat until his time comes as an opportunity.

The bargaining sentence is probably this:

"Since your legitimacy is being debated at home, don't worry, I will provide it for you, as long as you do what I want..."

In other words, he is saying: give up Russian oil, buy gas from me, buy planes; zero the customs duties on my goods; don't go against my grain in the Middle East, don't follow policies contrary to my imperialist ambitions, don't threaten Israel, stand with me against Iran, don't make a sound about a Greater Kurdistan, and I will keep you in power; if you want, I'll send hot money, I'll ignore your medieval-remnant neo-Hamidian regime, and I'll applaud your post-modern Caliphate.

It's that simple.

Well, how the will of the people of my country, who should be the true source of legitimacy for political power, will manifest while all this theater is being played out in front of everyone's eyes, we will see in the first election to be held.