CHP trolls and the 'Golden Girl of the Gestapo'

The CHP, the founding party of the Republic of Turkey, became Turkey's leading party after many years by receiving 37.8 percent of the vote in the last elections.

Following this electoral success, it has faced one ordeal after another.

Many CHP members, primarily Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, have been arrested. Their trials are ongoing.

The 38th Ordinary Congress of the CHP, held on November 4, 2023, is at the center of these legal cases.

At that Congress, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the 7th Chairman of the CHP and the presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, competed against Özgür Özel. Özgür Özel won the Congress, which went to a second round of counting.

To rewind the story a bit...

The congress process that Özel won began on May 29, one day after the second round of the 2023 elections, when IMM Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu said, "Remember, the only thing that doesn't change is change itself. Change in every field, in every environment. We will no longer expect different results by doing the same things."

The fire of change ignited by İmamoğlu found its response in November.

The result at the Congress reversed the despondency in the opposition camp as it headed toward the 2024 local elections. There was hope now.

The biggest factor in the CHP becoming the leading party after many years was undoubtedly the Congress where the chairman changed.

The marketplace became chaotic after these results as well.

The government first used the process carried out under the name of normalization to its own advantage, and subsequently began a major offensive using the stick of the judiciary.

First Esenyurt Mayor Ahmet Özer, then Beşiktaş Mayor Rıza Akpolat, and then it was the turn of IMM Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.

As İmamoğlu addressed the public at rallies as a presidential candidate, he was aware that his turn had come and expressed this repeatedly.

Then, on the morning of March 19, law enforcement officers showed up at the door.

While the detention process was ongoing, rumors that a trustee would be appointed to the IMM were echoing even in dead-end streets.

You know this whole process and its aftermath more or less.

Undoubtedly, there are also things we do not know.

We are left with questions we are trying to learn the answers to but cannot find.

For example, we cannot learn the stance of former Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu while the stick of "Absolute Nullity" is being brandished over the CHP. We do not know for sure whether Kılıçdaroğlu will return to the party if an "Absolute Nullity" decision is issued.

As you know, there are those who engage in gossip commentary in the media under the control of the Palace. They claim to be close to Kılıçdaroğlu.

There is no oath they haven't taken to prove they are CHP members from their grandfathers' time.

Well, Kılıçdaroğlu sometimes makes a few sentences of evaluation to these people regarding "Absolute Nullity." These statements are served to readers/viewers in large fonts by those media organizations.

If the goal is not achieved, or if the statement backfires, Kılıçdaroğlu's lawyers announce that these statements are not true.

In a normal country, if a politician has an organization that spreads gossip, rumors, and smear campaigns about them, they would keep at least some distance from it.

However, we never witness Kılıçdaroğlu drawing such a line. This is the first example...

Another example concerns the indictment and trial process regarding the IMM case...

It is now crystal clear that many of those who appear as secret witnesses in this case are Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu trolls. While the hearings continue, we have not yet encountered any sharp, clear, legal evidence.

We have not encountered any evidence or document that would make us say, "Wow, they really did these things, they ruined everything."

While the case is being blown out of proportion with the statements of a few people benefiting from effective remorse saying "it was like this, it was like that," many people continue to be torn away from their families, their children, and their loved ones.

We have also not witnessed Kılıçdaroğlu, who prides himself on not reaching for the public treasury, saying a word on behalf of the poor laborers who are clearly being persecuted in this case.

Another example is the Espionage Case, in which İmamoğlu, Necati Özkan, and Merdan Yanardağ are being tried and for which the first hearing will be held today...

It is such an indictment that one of the reasons for the accusation against Merdan Yanardağ, who has been a journalist as an anti-imperialist and patriot for 40 years, is the questions and comments he directed at Kılıçdaroğlu in an interview he conducted with him in June after the 2023 elections...

The prosecution says, in essence: "In this program, you were used by Hüseyin Gün, the head of the espionage organization, and you created a perception against Kılıçdaroğlu by asking questions under Gün's direction..."

Making such an accusation against a 40-year veteran journalist must be the greatest of insults. We have not seen any evaluation from Kılıçdaroğlu on this matter to date either.

We will see the answers to questions such as "Will an 'Absolute Nullity' decision be issued after this point, will Kılıçdaroğlu return to the head of the CHP, and if he returns, how will democracy in Turkey be wounded?" in the coming period.

In closing, I would like to tell a story of "informantism" that took place in Nazi Germany.

Although I don't really like Nazi examples, the story of Stella Goldschlag, known as the "Golden Girl of the Gestapo," is striking.

Stella was the daughter of a Jewish family living in Berlin. She was captured by the Gestapo in 1943 and subjected to severe torture. When "informantism" was imposed on her, she accepted.

Because she was blonde, she first built friendships with hundreds of Jews hiding in Berlin, and then handed them over to the Gestapo. As a result of Stella's denunciations, hundreds of people lost their lives during the Holocaust.

Stella, who started "informantism" to save her family and her life, began to enjoy it after a point. She now saw herself as a "hunter." And she began to take pleasure in sending hundreds of people to their deaths.

Stella was captured and tried after World War II. But beyond the sentence she received, she had become the symbol of that shameful "informantism." There is so much to learn from history.

Greetings to those who walk with their heads held high.