Orkun Özeller’s crime!..

Let’s start with journalist Fatih Altaylı, who has been in custody for exactly 3 months.

In a YouTube broadcast, while evaluating the results of a survey stating, “The public says no to Erdoğan remaining in office for life by a rate of 70 percent,” he first said the following:

“This rate is a rate I very much expected. Right now, except for a significant portion of AKP voters and a portion of MHP voters, no one would approve of such a thing... The Turkish public loves the ballot box. They want the power to be in their own hands. They like holding the possibility of changing their father if they were to put him there.”

Then, pointing to Ottoman history, he spoke as follows:

“Look at the past of this nation, I am not talking about its recent past, look at its distant past. This is a nation that has strangled its sultans, when it did not like them, when it did not want them. It is not a small number, the Ottoman sultans who were killed, assassinated, or strangled, or made to look like they committed suicide.”

It was this second part of Altaylı’s words that was brought to the forefront. Someone from the heights said, “the water is getting hot for you.” Following that, Altaylı was detained and arrested for “threatening” Erdoğan.

Altaylı, who faces at least 5 years in prison, is waiting to appear before a judge for the first time on October 3.

BAHÇELİ’S ADVICE FROM THE HEIGHTS

As is known, retired Colonel Orkun Özeller, who recently made statements against the peace process, was subjected to threats and insults by MHP members. Six days ago, upon a criminal complaint by MHP Leader Bahçeli, he was arrested on charges of “insult” and “inciting the public to hatred and hostility.”

While researching what kind of “crime” Özeller could have committed by being against the peace process, look at what I found.

MHP Leader Bahçeli, during the previous peace process, gave this word-for-word response to the then-Prime Minister Erdoğan’s reminder that “There was Lazistan and Kurdistan in the Ottoman Empire”:

“If Prime Minister Erdoğan is absolutely going to take an example from history for himself; our advice to him is to learn about the bathhouse crier Patrona Halil, to read about the anti-innovation Kabakçı Mustafa, and to understand Tepedelenli Ali Pasha, whose body and head were in different places. If that is not enough, he should examine the cautionary end of the gang leaders whose weapons dripped with Turkish blood in the Balkan Mountains, who crushed the head of the Ottoman Empire and made their lives a dungeon, and whom he and his negotiator friends follow in the footsteps of; the criminals who collaborated with imperialists and rebelled under various guises and goals; the wretches who attempted to trample on the understanding of the state and nation being eternal. There is no permission or consent for treason on any page of Turkish history... Our noble nation has always climbed on top of the disloyal, the unfaithful, and those involved in treason, choked them, and destroyed them with its wrath.”

PICK AND CHOOSE FROM THE INSULTS

After this note, let us present a selection of the expressions Bahçeli used about Erdoğan and the AKP during the previous peace process. He said;

“Prime Minister Erdoğan has become a fairy godmother to the villain of İmralı... Prime Minister Erdoğan and the terrorist Öcalan have become bloody and separatist messengers of disaster, coddled in the same cradle... How much longer will the Turkish nation tolerate a Prime Minister who is a federalist, a separatist, a terrorist enthusiast, and a protector of terrorism?.. Our suggestion to Erdoğan is that he should also mix with the terrorists and leave our borders, never to return... You are the one who turned a life-term terrorist convict into a political actor. You are the one who provides distribution services for the messages and letters of the villain-in-chief. You are the one who prepares the environment for him to give instructions to his militants. You are the one who allows him to express his views on the drafting of the constitution... You are the one who reflects his separatist ideas to the public... You are the one who got caught by bargains, who made your political honor nothing, and who humiliated your national pride... According to us, there is only one thing left for you to do: That is to get up from the Prime Ministry seat and seat the villain-in-chief in your place... AKP officials who speak like PKK spokespeople will sooner or later pay the price for their ugliness, their disgusting analogies, and their slander... The colonial powers that our great nation heroically defeated 90 years ago have searched for and found a new Damat Ferit figure right next to us and appointed him to their ambitions... [Referring to the Greater Middle East Project] The screenwriter of this bloody and inhumane new colonialism is the USA, its co-chair is Erdoğan, and its paid mercenaries are the AKP, PKK, BDP, and the terrorist leader... As long as the Nationalist Movement exists, the traitor will not be able to open his eyes, the co-chairs will not be able to breathe, and bloody ambitions will not be able to harm the Turkish nation... The AKP is practically struggling to make the Grand National Assembly a counterpart to the PKK and is distorting everything... The Prime Minister and his government; are hoping for benefit from division. They are looking for a solution in fragmentation, in ethnic-based cracking. They are expecting wisdom from the terrorist Öcalan. They are begging for favors from the villains in Kandil... Whatever the separatist terrorist organization could not do with weapons, it is achieving through the AKP, through the betrayal of the AKP... Prime Minister Erdoğan and the villain of İmralı have found each other like a pot and its lid and have overlapped on goals... Prime Minister Erdoğan’s chassis has been punctured, his transmission has fallen apart, his screws have loosened, his battery has died, and his rudder has been shattered long ago... Of course, we will speak the language the Prime Minister understands. Of course, we will respond to the Prime Minister as he deserves, we will answer him in the way he is worthy of... What is it that closes your eyes, that dominates your decisions? Do you have a secret, are you under threat? Do you have a mistake that you cannot give, cannot explain, and cannot compensate for, and are you bowing to every humiliation? At this rate, the Prime Minister will sooner or later come before the Supreme Court and will be condemned forever in the conscience of the Turkish nation, having to spend the rest of his life in regret... Prime Minister Erdoğan, who attacks Assad by calling him a baby killer, a villain, and a murderer, but who negotiates with the terrorist leader to whom these titles are given by the Turkish nation just a step away, will pay the price for what he has done one by one... It is never possible for anyone other than the AKP to commit such a betrayal... The AKP government has contaminated all security institutions and assigned them for the purpose of advancing separatist policies... Mr. Prime Minister, we were not joking when we said the Nationalist Movement has not yet said its last word. We did not speak just for the sake of it when we said everything is not over yet. Be smart, otherwise the Turkish nation and Turkish nationalists will know very well how to make you lose your mind.”

So, it turns out that peace processes can be criticized, and even such very harsh words can be said. Or is this right reserved only for certain people, given that Orkun Özeller was arrested for both “insult” and “inciting the public to hatred and hostility”?!

'LET THEM ASK ZEKAİ PASHA ABOUT ME'

Now let’s move on to the news about Orkun Özeller.

Only MHP members and PKK members were happy about his arrest. So much so that he was asked what he did during the July 15 coup attempt... He was accused of killing “Kurds” based on his photo in peshmerga clothing in northern Iraq.

Özeller, whom we reached through his relatives, contented himself with responding to the July 15 implications by saying, “Let them ask Zekai (Aksakallı) Pasha what I did,” while saying the following regarding the other accusation:

“I see that some terrorist lovers are trying to engage in black propaganda by using my photo from the period when we were fighting the PKK together with peshmerga elements in northern Iraq. PKK extensions, seizing this opportunity, have also embarked on a smear campaign against the TSK (Turkish Armed Forces). I ask these people, who are not worth answering: Do you have anything to say to defend the rights of the babies, women, and thousands of Kurdish-origin citizens murdered by the PKK terrorist organization? Are you happy with these massacres?”

We should also note this. When a person close to Hezbollah members, who was heard at last week’s meeting of the PKK commission, accused the police and soldiers of “committing massacres,” MHP Deputy Chairman Feti Yıldız reacted with the words, “We invited you here, but we did not call you to insult the soldiers, the police, and the state.”

But for days, no one has come out to react to the slanders thrown at our soldiers over a photo of Orkun Özeller!..

'WHAT POLITICAL PRICE DID HE PAY IN THE PREVIOUS PEACE PROCESS?'

The latest news from Özeller; the 2-page letter he wrote to me yesterday arrived.

The letter, which begins with “I embrace all the Turkish Nation who are not Apoists with longing,” continues as follows:

“The weather has been cloudy and mostly rainy since I entered prison. Our courtyard is 4x5 meters. It is enough for exercising. It reminds me of the places where I had to exercise during the periods I served in northern Iraq. The living conditions of our room are also better than the periods I served. I remember, in those days, talking to our families by phone once a week was considered a blessing. Even the phone opportunity here is better. At least it doesn’t feel challenging to me. And there is no terrorist threat. I recently received threats from terrorist lovers. All of Turkey got to know them too. It is sad that these wretches, who normally don’t have the heart to face me alone, are the age of my children. I will still make them pay the price for their insolence on legal grounds.”

After Özeller explained which TV channels they watch and which newspapers they receive in prison, he makes the following political assessments in summary:

“The thing I am most happy about since entering prison is seeing that those in the organizations of opposition parties and the voters can come together. This unification being at the level of Chairmen is the only option that will prevent the disaster our country is being dragged into. I listened to the President’s speech the other day. He spoke to the effect that this process that has been initiated will achieve a new success. The process they carried out between 2013-2015 came to my mind. At the end of that process, which they started saying peace would come, our security units paid the price. Just as no politician paid a price, none of them lost their seats either. I guess this must be what is described as success. Let’s see who will pay the price with their lives this time? We will stop this process so that the children of homes without plaster do not pay the price because of the wrong policies of politicians. We have to stop it. Operations against CHP municipalities are still continuing. Mr. Özgür Özel talks about injustice and human rights violations in the statements he makes. I am of the same opinion. If there is a government that cannot be trusted, why does he continue to stay on the commission?”

In the last part of his letter, Özeller conveys his thanks to those who called his family to ask, “Do you need anything?”, to those who fearlessly supported him despite being in the bureaucracy, and to the members of the press who ensured his voice was heard.

Meanwhile, I spoke with Colonel Orkun’s 83-year-old mother, Olcay Özeller. Stating that she wants her son to take good care of himself and that she is waiting for him to get out of prison as soon as possible, mother Özeller also added:

“My son only worked and works for the homeland and the nation. I am saddened that he is subjected to this treatment when he should be appreciated.”

How could she not be saddened?!

Müyesser YILDIZ

September 22, 2025