‘Execution’ lists that haven't changed in fifty years!

I am 63 years old… I have been a journalist for exactly 43 years. My childhood and the early years of my youth were spent in the armed, chaotic period before the 1980 coup.

My neighborhood and school friends fell victim to “unsolved” murders. 

Tayfun, the bravest lad in the neighborhood, was killed by ultranationalists (Ülkücüler) when he was 19. He had just gotten engaged that day, and they were excitedly trying to print the engagement photos with Derya, our neighborhood photographer.

It was three in the morning… The streets echoed with seven or eight gunshots. 

They murdered both Derya and Tayfun.

The strange thing is, neither of them had any interest in politics. 

It was later understood that someone had told those killers, “Go and shoot the photographer”; but the hitmen had raided the wrong photographer!

***

Sait was also a friend from the neighborhood… We were the same age. I used to frequent student associations, but Sait had nothing to do with politics. 

He would spend his time outside of school at his father's greengrocer shop. 

He also played soccer with me until the middle of the night. We would try to score goals into the stone goalposts we set up in the empty street. 

One day, martial law soldiers picked up Sait while he was walking down the street. They had mistaken him for a wanted Trotskyist leftist militant.

Or rather, that was the information that had come from “reliable sources”!

To make him talk, they fed the electricity from the dams into Sait’s young body at full power… 

My brother, who went in weighing 80 kilos, came out four or five months later weighing 45 kilos. He had developed cirrhosis. His face and hands were brown. He didn't live much longer after that anyway…

***

For “children of the coup era” like me, there are so many such “harrowing” memories; they are endless…

Behind most of the murders that took place during that period, there is usually a “false tip-off”!

Those who made these tip-offs were often ultranationalists known for their proximity to the government.

Because of these tip-offs, traps, and blacklisting, so many innocent people were killed, and so many homes were devastated; it is impossible to count.

***

So much time has passed since then…

I was hoping they had changed, but this evil “ultranationalist tradition” has resurfaced.

Unable to compete in the intellectual arena, MHP members have once again started targeting innocent people, resorting to threats, blackmail, and conspiracies.

Just think, even the former Chairman of the Ülkü Ocakları (Idealist Hearths) lost his life to the bullets of his own “comrades.”

Would those who show no mercy to their own comrades show mercy to “dissidents”? 

Never…

Now, the MHP has openly targeted 154 dissidents by naming them.

***

MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli held a press conference yesterday for this purpose.

Waving a file in his hand, he spoke of 154 people who criticized the MHP on various TV programs…

He accused them all at once of “insulting the MHP.” He said they would hold all 154 of them accountable one by one. Then, perhaps realizing the “crime” in his words, he tried to backtrack:

“Let them not be afraid… We will hold them accountable in the courts!”

***

These words are an open threat. It is a targeting of killers, perverts, and fanatics whose minds are obsessed with their party…

Devlet Bey should now pray day and night that nothing happens to the people whose names I have listed one by one below.

If even one of them gets a bloody nose, the address where the police will go to catch the real perpetrator is clear from today.

POLITICIANS

Özgür Özel, Deniz Yavuzyılmaz, Gökhan Günaydın, Ali Mahir Başarır, Sezgin Tanrıkulu, Murat Bakan, Yunus Emre, Özgür Karabat, Cumhur Uzun, Ali Öztunç, Mustafa Adıgüzel, Mahir Polat, Ümit Özdağ, Müsavat Dervişoğlu, Uğur Poyraz, Turhan Çömez, Buğra Kavuncu, Ahmet Davutoğlu, Selçuk Özdağ, Ali Babacan, Erkan Baş, Levent Tüzel, Sevda Karaca, Alper Taş, Remzi Çayır, Hüseyin Baş, Salih Uzun, Cem Toker, Doğan Aydal, Ahat Andican, Aytun Çıray, Bahattin Yücel, Ali Haydar Fırat, Emin Şirin, Fikri Sağlar, Gülay Yedekçi, Mustafa Böğürcü, Nazif Okumuş, Önay Alpago, Bahadır Erdem, Turan Aydoğan, Yavuz Ağıralioğlu, Yavuz Değirmenci, Gaye Usluer, Nesrin Nas, Ufuk Söylemez, Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit.

JOURNALISTS

Murat Muratoğlu, Akif Beki, Ali Kemal Erdem, Altan Sancar, Asuman Aranca, Atakan Sönmez, Ayşen Şahin, Bahadır Özgür, Barış Pehlivan, Caner Taşpınar, Çiğdem Toker, Deniz Zeyrek, Dinçer Gökçe, Nedim Türkmen, Elfin Tataroğlu, Elif Doğan Şentürk, Doğan Şentürk, Ersin Eroğlu, Fatih Ergin, Fatih Polat, Fırat Fıstık, Fikret Bila, Hakan Çelenk, Hilmi Hacaloğlu, Hüsnü Mahalli, İbrahim Kahveci, İnanç Uysal, İslam Özkan, İsmail Saymaz, Kemal Göktaş, Masum Gök, Mehmet Bal, Mehmet Tezkan, Merdan Yanardağ, Miyase İlknur, Murat Ağırel, Murat Karan, Murat Yetkin, Nevşin Mengü, Nevzat Çiçek, Nurcan Gökdemir, Orhan Uğuroğlu, Özlem Akarsu Çelik, Emre Kongar, Sertaç Eş, Seyhan Avşar, Taha Akyol, Timur Soykan, Uğur Dündar, Yaşar Aydın, Yavuz Oğhan, Yavuz Selim Demirağ, Yıldız Yazıcıoğlu, Zübeyde Sarı, Mustafa Balbay, Mustafa Kurdaş, Hilal Köylü, Orhan Bursalı, Umut Taştan, Alican Uludağ, Namık Koçak, Özlem Gürses, Yalçın Doğan.

LEGAL PROFESSIONALS 

Celal Ülgen, Afşin Hatipoğlu, Bülent Yücetürk, Ruşen Gültekin, Figen Çalıkuşu, Gürkan Çakıroğlu, İlhan Cihaner, Mehmet Saral, Muzaffer Nerse, Hasan Sınar, Salim Şen, Gamze Pamuk Ateşli.

ACADEMICS OR RESEARCHERS

Can Selçuki, Ceren Kumbasar Mumay, Güven Gürkan Öztan, Berk Esen, Can Kakışım, Haldun Solmaztürk, İbrahim Uslu, Eren Aksoyoğlu, Erol Mütercimler, Mehmet Ali Kulat, Mehmet Yaşar Altındağ, Oğul Aktuna, Mithat Baydur, Öner Günçavdı, Sait Yılmaz, Ersin Kalaycıoğlu, İpek Özkal Sayan, Semih Turhan, Sezin Öney, Suat Özçelebi, Seda Demiralp, Osman Sert, Burak Cop, Barış Övgün, Necati Özkan, Tacire Bektaş, Tayfun Atay, Onur Alp Yılmaz, Gülgün Erdoğan Tosun.

OTHERS

Türker Ertürk (Retired Admiral), Hanefi Avcı (Retired Police Officer), Ömer Zengin (Friend of Sinan Ateş).

***

This is an “execution” list!

Whether the execution takes place or not; no one, absolutely no one, can make such a list.

One cannot attempt to silence the country's politicians, journalists, legal professionals, and scientists through this list.

I am calling on everyone on the list:

Do not take this lightly, and file a criminal complaint against Devlet Bahçeli starting today.

***

Tayfun and Derya were victims of a tip-off…

Sait was detained based on a false tip-off made to the military by the ultranationalists of his time, and he lost his life as a result of torture.

Watching Devlet Bahçeli on live television yesterday, those days came to my mind…

I saw that neither their hatred nor their anger has diminished…

They still haven't come to their senses…

They cannot accept any criticism, and they are “listing” dissidents while foaming at the mouth…

***

I wonder; will a brave “public prosecutor” emerge who can open an investigation into this MHP “death list”?

Actually, I am asking this question just for the sake of it. 

Because unfortunately, I know the answer all too well!