A 30-page historic defense from Ümit Özdağ! 'Your Honor...'

Zafer Party Chairman Ümit Özdağ, who has been detained at the Marmara Prison in Silivri since January 19, appeared before a judge for the first time.

Speaking at his party's Provincial Chairmen Consultation Meeting in Antalya on January 19, Zafer Party Chairman Özdağ had stated, "No Crusade that has taken place in the last thousand years has caused as much damage to the Turkish nation and the Turkish state as Erdoğan and the AKP have."

Following this speech, Ümit Özdağ was detained in Ankara the next day on charges of "insulting the President," and after his statement to the prosecutor, he was arrested on charges of "publicly inciting the public to hatred and hostility." A lawsuit was filed against him with a request for up to 4 years and 8 months in prison for "insulting the President."

A 30-PAGE HISTORIC DEFENSE

The hearing held today at the Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court began with Özdağ's defense.

Özdağ presented a 30-page defense.

Here is the full text of Ümit Özdağ's defense...

"Your Honor;

AK Party Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a speech to the Ak Party Mersin provincial delegates and members at the Ak Party Mersin provincial congress on January 18, 2025. In his speech, Erdoğan said:

“The first 80 years of our country were marked by the pains of the transition from the Ottoman Empire, which was under the burden of the First World War with the fatigue of centuries, to the republic. We paid heavy prices for the destructive and oppressive policies of single-party fascism against our nation's faith, history, and culture.”

On January 19, 2025, at the Zafer Party provincial chairmen meeting in Antalya, I responded to the statement by Ak Party Chairman Erdoğan, who portrayed the policies of the leader of our War of Independence and the founder of our Republic, Atatürk, as policies that made our nation pay heavy prices for its faith, history, and culture, with the following expressions:

“In this struggle, in this political-intellectual struggle, there are terrorist organizations like the PKK, FETÖ, and ISIS that I am fighting against. Against all of these, the Zafer Party resolutely defends the founding philosophy of the Republic, its fundamental principles, and the independence and indivisible integrity of our nation and state.

However, unfortunately, the Zafer Party has to defend the indivisible integrity of our country, the founding philosophy of our Republic, and the valuable legacy left by Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk not only against them, but also against Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AKP. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says the following in the speech he made at his party's congress in Mersin yesterday; "The first 80 years of our country were marked by the pains of the transition from the Ottoman Empire, which was under the burden of the First World War with the fatigue of centuries, to the republic. We have paid heavy prices for the policies of single-party fascism against our nation's faith, history, and culture.", he said.

Dear Zafer Party members, the Turkish nation has maintained its sovereignty in Anatolia for 1000 years. We have been subjected to many Crusades over 1000 years. The First Crusade began in 1095, and the last crusade took place between 1914 and 1922. We defeated the last great Crusade in Anatolia under the leadership of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and buried the Crusader Armies in the cold waters of the Mediterranean. The Republic of Turkey became a new Ergenekon for the Turkish nation, and in this new Ergenekon, our noble nation grew stronger, armed itself, and built its industry. It eliminated the diseases left behind by the period of collapse. Then it took Hatay. Then it established a state in Cyprus.

Rest assured that no Crusade that has taken place in the last 1000 years has caused as much damage to the Turkish nation and the Turkish state as Erdoğan and the AKP have. No Crusade has been able to infiltrate spies into the Turkish state. Erdoğan infiltrated the spy FETÖ into the Turkish state, handed the Turkish state over to FETÖ, and had FETÖ establish a parallel state. No Crusade has been able to make the Turkish nation Deist, Atheist, or Christian. During the Erdoğan era, large segments of the Turkish nation began to cool off from their religion because of those who deceive with God, and during the Erdoğan era, the rate of Deists and Atheists exceeded 16%. Erdoğan should know that; the cadres who founded the Republic did not attack the faith, history, and culture of the Turkish nation; on the contrary, Atatürk and his comrades-in-arms protected and developed the faith, history, and culture of the Turkish nation. It is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself who attacks the faith, culture, and history of the Turkish nation and learns history from a "Fez-wearing Madman." Yes, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; by bringing partners to the history of the Turkish nation and distorting the history of the Turkish nation, he is harming the history of the Turkish nation. Erdoğan is harming the faith of the Turkish nation by distributing the Turkish nation's state among sects and communities and by making those who associate partners with God partners in the state. And by letting millions of refugees and illegal immigrants into Anatolia, he is destroying the culture of the Turkish nation. And what is happening is actually an AKP fascism, and as the Zafer Party, we will not normalize with this fascism like the main opposition. We will fight and we will win. Victory will belong to the Turkish state and the Turkish nation!”

Your Honor;

These two speeches carry no quality beyond a polemic taking place between political party chairmen, and they do not carry the slightest quality of an insult. In both places of my speech, the expressions "Erdoğan and the AKP" appear together. It is clear that it is a response directed not at Erdoğan's identity as President, but at his identity as AKP Chairman. Although the speech was made in Antalya; the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation against me on the morning of January 20 on charges of insulting the President. On the same day in Ankara, around 18:30, I was detained after nearly 100 police officers surrounded the restaurant where I was located.

That same evening, I was brought to Istanbul by police and PÖH (Police Special Operations) teams, accompanied by a convoy traveling at an average speed of 150 km/h. I spent the night at the Istanbul Police Department on a 2-meter wooden plank. On the morning of January 21, I was referred for arrest by the prosecutor's office, where I was brought to give a statement on charges of insulting the President, for allegedly inciting the incidents related to Syrian refugees that occurred in Kayseri on June 30, 2024. What I understand from this is that the Kayseri Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and the Kayseri Police Department have either not been able to reach the conclusion that I incited the events that took place in Kayseri for 7 months, or they have reached this conclusion but committed professional negligence and did not open the necessary investigation.

Your Honor;

Regarding the allegation of insulting the President, for which I am being tried today, the prosecutor's office later prepared an indictment but did not state which of my expressions in the speech, which is alleged to contain criminal elements, were insults and why.

Your Honor;

The regulation regarding the crime of insulting the President is a regulation made during the Parliamentary System period to protect the impartial, that is, non-partisan President. In the Presidential Government System, the meaning of this article has disappeared. In an environment where the President decides for himself when he is a political party chairman and when he is the President, democratic politics disappears. I criticized the Ak Party Chairman who spoke at the Mersin Ak Party Provincial Congress and was surrounded by 100 police officers and detained by 25 police officers for insulting the President. This means that no politician, no party chairman, and no citizen who does not have parliamentary immunity can criticize the Ak Party Chairman. This situation is not a situation that can be accepted in a democratic state of law.

Your Honor;

The subject of the debate I had with Ak Party Chairman Erdoğan is history, Turkish History, and the present of Turkey. Therefore, the defense I will make here today will also have a historical background.

The Turkish Nation is one of the two nations that have the quality of being the nation with the longest state history in history. Turks and Chinese have maintained their existence within the framework of state organization over a tremendous time span of 4 thousand years, from 2000 BC to 2000 AD. The pre-Islamic history of the Turkish Nation spreads over 3 thousand years through the main lines of Scythians, Huns, Göktürks, and Uyghurs.

The Turkish nation accepted the Islamic religion approximately 1000 years ago under the leadership of the Karakhanid Khagan, Saltuk Buğra Khan; while the Karakhanid State became the first Muslim Turkish State, our Muslim Turkish national identity that we possess today also began to form. The Karakhanids were followed by the Ghaznavid Turkish State. The Ghaznavid State was the first state internship for Turks in terms of governing different Muslim states under one state roof.

The Seljuks, who signed the glorious pages of Great Turkish History, are from the Kinik tribe of the Oghuz. Under the command of Tughril Beg, a part of the Turks reached Anatolia via the Iranian Plateau through the path opened by the Battle of Dandanakan (1040).

The Battle of Dandanakan and the arrival of the Seljuks in Anatolia and the Middle East via the Iranian Plateau have two major strategic consequences:

Reaching Anatolia ensured that Anatolia would be Turkified forever and become a second homeland. Reaching the Middle East, which was reached before Anatolia, ensured an end to the relentless instability that the Islamic world had fallen into.

As the Seljuk armies began their descent into the Middle East, the Abbasid Caliphate was on the verge of extinction. Qarmatism, which controlled the Persian Gulf, Al-Jazira, and Arabia, had become a state as a wild communist movement that rejected Islam and advocated the sharing of property and women. The Qarmatians advanced as far as Damascus and occupied Mecca in 930. The Kaaba was looted, and thirty thousand pilgrims were massacred. This primitive communist state would continue for nearly a hundred years. During the same period; the Buyid Dynasty, representing Zoroastrianism in Iran, usurped power. The Buyids kept the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad under their control.

In Egypt, the Fatimid Shia understanding was on the path to reviving the religion of the Pharaohs. The sixth Fatimid Caliph, Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, declared himself a god. Byzantium, taking advantage of this fragmentation in the Islamic world, went on the offensive, repelling the four-hundred-year gains of Islam, occupying Antioch, and entering Lebanon. Byzantium was preparing to take Jerusalem and confine the Islamic Religion to the Arabian Peninsula.

It was in such an environment that the Seljuk Turkish armies began to descend from the Oghuz lands into the Middle East. In Surah Al-Ma'idah, verse 54, it is said: ''O you who have believed, whoever of you should revert from his religion - Allah will bring forth [in place of them] a people He will love and who will love Him [who are] humble toward the believers, powerful against the disbelievers; they strive in the cause of Allah and do not fear the blame of a critic. That is the favor of Allah; He bestows it upon whom He wills. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing.''

A historian explains what happened in this section of Turkish history as follows;

''In this section of history, there is an extraordinary simultaneity, a miraculous synchronization between events. While the armies of oppression carrying the Byzantine cross were invading Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia and Syria, and killing and enslaving the Islamic people of the region with a thousand and one insults, and while the Qarmatians were destroying and defiling the Kaaba, the conversion of the Turks to Islam was not coincidental. The Almighty is bringing His armies onto the stage.

The Turks felt that they were being called to duty as the Army of God.”

Tughril Beg knows where he came from, why he came, and who he is. In the letter he sent to Caliph Qaim in 1043, he introduces himself as follows: ''I am the son of free people and I belong to the Royal dynasty of the Huns.'' In other words, Tughril Beg reveals his high Turkish consciousness while stating that he is the grandson of Oghuz Khan.

Abbasid Caliph Al-Qaim bi-Amr Allah invites Tughril Beg to Baghdad. Tughril Beg and the Seljuk army enter Baghdad in the month of Ramadan in 1055 and put an end to the Buyid pressures. He puts an end to the lack of public order in the region.

With a ceremony held in Baghdad on January 24, 1058, the caliph declares Tughril Beg the sultan of the East and the West. Two swords are girded on Tughril Beg, and a turban and crown are placed on his head. Seven kaftans with a single collar, signifying dominion over the 7 Climates, are placed on his back.

Prof. Dr. Halil İnalcık says, "from this moment on, the leadership of the Islamic world has passed to the Turkish race, the Turkish government, and its governments, both de facto and de jure."

The fact that Seljuk Sultan Tughril Beg was called the "Sultan of Islam, Pillar of the World and Religion," the ruler of the East and the West, was not a personal power event; the mission that Turkishness undertook for Islam was known by all Turkish intellectuals and the nation at that time, and was adopted with enthusiasm and pride.''

Your Honor;

August 26, 1071, is the date when the mass entry of Turks into Anatolia began in recent history. The history of Turkishness in Anatolia began with the Sumerians. The founder of our Republic, Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, expressed this in his manuscripts as follows; “Seven thousand years ago, in Al-Jazira, the principle of democracy was applied among the Sumerian, Elamite, and Akkadian peoples who established the first civilization of humanity. Indeed, these Turkish peoples formed a united republic.” (Afet İnan, Civil Information, 11th Edition, Istanbul, February 2019, Örgün Publishing, p. 48)

It is also known that the Scythian Turks and Huns entered Anatolia. Later, in the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries AD, we see Turks as a people who came from the Balkans and the Caucasus and settled in Anatolia. Many of these groups, who cooperated with Byzantium, became Christianized. It is also known that the Turkish Hassa units in the Abbasid army settled on the line extending from Tarsus to Erzurum. Especially in the 9th century, the Turkish population in these regions increased, and many cities on the line extending to Eskişehir were temporarily occupied by the Turks.

Byzantium only put an end to the Turkish military presence in Southeastern and Eastern Anatolia between 928-964, and the region from Erzurum to Adana was recaptured by Byzantine armies. It is known that the Turks fielded one hundred thousand cavalrymen during the period when they were defeated in this region. In other words, the number of Turks in Anatolia before 1071 was not negligible.

The first Anatolian Expedition of the Seljuks was carried out by Çağrı Beg in 1015-1016. In the following years, the Seljuks brought the borders of Anatolia, especially the South Caucasus, under control. The Battle of Pasin, won by Kutalmış Beg on September 18, 1049, is no less important than Manzikert in military terms, and Byzantium gave one hundred thousand prisoners. Tughril Beg in 1054 and Yakuti Beg in 1055 entered Anatolia again, and they took Malatya in 1058. The Seljuks besieged Urfa in 1059, took Sivas in the same year, and Afşin, who entered Anatolia many times in the 60s, reached the banks of the Sakarya River in 1068, and the Turkish army, again under the command of Afşin, entered Denizli in 1070.

In summary, the Turks did not come to Anatolia suddenly with Manzikert in 1071. They have both a historical and ethnic depth. And they have struggled in various dimensions with the dominant political and military powers in this geography within the fifty years before 1071. However; a new era began in Turkish history with the victory won by Sultan Alparslan at Manzikert on August 26, 1071. This era is the war that the Turkish Nation, as the sword and shield of the Islamic World alone, has waged against the united Christian European continent, which will continue to this day. In the first phase of this war, between 1071 and 1683, the Turkish Nation advanced from Manzikert to the gates of Vienna. In the second phase of this war, the Turkish Nation experienced a decline that lasted 238 years, from Vienna in 1683 to the banks of the Sakarya in 1921, against the United Christian West; and even approached extinction.

Turkish intellectuals of the period were also aware that the Battle of Manzikert was a new beginning in Turkish history. Prince Kashgari Mahmud, of Karakhanid descent, says the following in the Divan-ı Lügatit Türk, which he began writing on January 25, 1072, six months after Manzikert, and finished on February 10, 1074: ''I saw that God had caused the sun of the state to rise in the Turkish constellations and had caused all the circles of the heavens to revolve over the Turks. God gave them the name Turk and made them masters of the earth. The emperors of the world came from the Turkish race, and the reins of the world's nations were placed in the hands of the Turks. The Turks were made superior to all nations by God. The Turks, who do not deviate from the truth, were strengthened by the Almighty on the truth. Even the nations that were with the Turks became noble. Such nations were enabled by the Turks to attain all their desires. The Turks protected the nations they took under their protection from the evil of the wicked. Everyone is in need of the Turks, who are the masters of the world. It is necessary to learn Turkish to be able to make them listen to one's troubles and thus attain every desire.”

Another importance of the Battle of Manzikert, the importance of 1071; stems from the fact that Anatolia, which is the land of a European State, came under the definitive rule of the Turks with the final defeat of Eastern Rome, which is a European State.

Indeed, four years after 1071, Nicaea was taken and declared the throne city by Suleiman Shah in 1080. The fact that Nicaea became the Turkish Capital and the Hagia Sophia Church, where the Council of 325 met, was turned into a mosque, had a shocking effect in Europe. The conquest of Anatolia was completely finished in 1083.

This development, which took place as we entered the second millennium, determined the geopolitical framework of the Turks between the years 1000 and 2000. For a significant part of the Oghuz Turks, the goal was to advance West to Europe and establish dominion over the European continent.

On the other hand, the reaction of Christian Europe to the conquest of Anatolia came twenty-four years after Manzikert, the First Crusade took place in 1096, and seven Crusades were made until 1270.

Following the arrival of the First Crusade in Anatolia, the hit-and-run wars applied by Sultan Kilij Arslan I against the Crusader Army led to the destruction of four-fifths of this army. Despite this, the Crusader Army conquered Jerusalem in 1099. As a result of this expedition, Byzantium returned to Western Anatolia, and a Latin County was established in Antalya. The other expeditions that followed also failed to drive the Turks out of Anatolia.

The holding of Turkishness in Anatolia took place during the reign of Sultan Mesut I, who ruled for forty years between 1116-1155, and was finalized with his son Kilij Arslan II crushing the one-hundred-thousand-strong Byzantine army at the Battle of Myriokephalon in 1176. Prof. Dr. Abdülhaluk Mehmet Çay says: ''The August 26, 1071 Manzikert Victory was a good news for the Turkish Nation looking for a new homeland. The September 17, 1176 Battle of Myriokephalon is a victory that made Anatolia Turkish forever.''

The First Crusade was followed by eight more Crusades. These are; the Second Crusade (1147-1149), the Third Crusade (1189-1192), the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204), the Fifth Crusade (1217-1221), the Sixth Crusade (1228-1229), the Seventh Crusade (1248-1254), the Eighth Crusade (1270), and the Ninth Crusade (1271-1272).

Your Honor;

These Crusades set the Turkish nation back, wore down the Turkish armies and the Turkish state, and delayed the Turkification of Anatolia, but they never defeated the Turkish armies and could not prevent Anatolia from becoming a homeland for the Turkish nation. Ottoman Turkishness, which overcame the Crusades, took its first step into Europe in 1352. Crusader Armies again appeared against the advance of Turkish armies in Rumelia. The Battle of Maritsa (1364), the First Battle of Kosovo (1389), the Battle of Nicopolis (1396), the Battle of Varna (1444), and the Second Battle of Kosovo (1448) are the names of the victories won by Turkish armies against Crusader Armies.

Yahya Kemal Beyatlı expresses that magnificent century of Turkish history as follows:

“A thousand horsemen, in raids, we were as happy as children.

A thousand horsemen, that day we defeated a giant army.

The white-turbaned bey shouted 'Advance!'

On a summer day, we crossed the Danube in caravans.”

One hundred and one years after we took our first step into Rumelia, Istanbul was conquered by Fatih Sultan Mehmet. We find that the Conquest of Istanbul was also a consciousness of Turkishness in the following lines of the historian of the period, Aşıkpaşazade Derviş Ahmet Âşıkî; “On the first Friday of the conquest, Friday prayer was performed in Hagia Sophia. And the Islamic sermon was read. In the name of Sultan Ghazi Mehmet, who is the son of Murat Ghazi Khan. And he is the son of Ghazi Mehmet Khan. He is also the son of Sultan Bayezid Khan. And he is the son of Murat Ghazi Hünkâr. The lineage of El Halil Gökalp, who is the son of Oghuz Khan.”

Your Honor;

The fact that the historian of the period, Aşık Paşazade, referred to Oghuz Khan while Istanbul was being conquered, shows that the Turkishness consciousness represented by Prince Kashgari Mahmud in the letter Tughril Beg wrote to the Abbasid Caliph and in the Divan-ı Lügat-ı Türk, also lived in Fatih Sultan Mehmet Khan four hundred and fifty years later.

The advance of Turkish armies into Europe by defeating Crusader Armies continued. Belgrade was conquered in 1521, and our ancestors composed songs full of love for Belgrade, which seems very distant to us emotionally today:

“Belgrade fortress, Zemlin plain,

Its cavalry cannot pass, let alone its infantry”

In 1526, the lovely Buda became a part of the soul of the Turkish State and nation. The Battle of Mohács, won on August 29, 1526, before the conquest of Buda, was etched into the mind of the Turkish Nation with these lines:

“Let the tents be gathered, let the standards be erected,

Let the sounds of Takbir rise to the heavens.

Let the standards be raised, let the Gülbank be called.

Permission granted, let us attack the enemy's land,

Permission granted, let us attack the Hungarian land.”

The Red Apple is now Vienna! The Ottoman Turks, who built seven mosques in Buda, lined up from east to west, named the westernmost mosque the Red Apple mosque. Vienna was besieged in 1529. While these were happening, Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq, the ambassador of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand I, evaluated the Turkish Nation that Europe was facing with the following sentences:

“If those who attacked our lands did not know the methods of winning victories that we know, if their forces were equal to ours, and if we had not stood up to these enemies despite this, we could have been called cowards. But this enemy is a calamity sent against us as a result of God's wrath, like Attila in the time of our grandfathers, Timur, and now the Ottoman flood.”

In summary, just as Fatih Sultan Mehmet knew he was Turkish, Europeans also know that Attila, Timur, and the Ottomans were Turkish.

Your Honor;

The Ottoman Turkish army, which besieged Vienna in 1529, besieged Vienna for the 2nd time one hundred and fifty-four years later, in 1683. While the number of states that have lived for one hundred and fifty-four years in world history is small, there is no other example in history of a nation, an army, besieging the same city again one hundred and fifty-four years later to realize its Red Apple. Famous psychiatrist and international conflict resolver Prof. Dr. Vamık Volkan explains how these two sieges shaped Vienna's mind as follows:

''Last year -in 2006- I taught at the University of Vienna. I suddenly realize that the Siege of Vienna is one step away, you touch it, it's coming, that's in the memories.”

Vienna, Europe; never forgot the Turkish Siege. The watchtowers, one of whose duties was to check whether the Turkish army was coming, were only demolished in the 20th century. The retreat of the Turkish Nation, which began in front of Vienna in 1683 against the United Christian Europe, resulted in the loss of the lovely Buda in 1686. One hundred and fifty years later; the lovely Buda, which was as Turkish as Istanbul, Skopje, and Bursa, fell. The Turkish Nation could not overcome the trauma of the lovely Buda until it experienced the defeat of the Balkan War, until 1912.

Today, for our people with high historical consciousness, Budapest is the lovely Buda. A businessman friend of mine goes to Buda. While praying at the head of the Albanian Abdurrahman Abdi Pasha, who was martyred while defending Buda and whose tombstone says "Heroic Enemy," he cries his eyes out. I also prayed and shed tears at the same grave. During that visit, while chatting with a Turkish businessman who has lived in Buda for many years, he told me that he runs and exercises on Kızlar Island on the Danube on weekends. I asked, "Do you know why that island is called Kızlar Island?" "No, I don't know." he said. I explained; "The Siege of Buda was continuing and it was understood that the city would fall. The Turkish army gathered thirty thousand Turkish women living in Buda on the island to evacuate them by ships, but before this evacuation could take place, enemy ships landed on the island and took the women captive. Thirty thousand Turkish women were sold as slaves in slave markets in Europe." I said. My friend cried and said, "I will never set foot on that island again."

Your Honor;

Those Turkish women composed hundreds of laments. In one of those laments, Razi Woman cries as follows.

We were left captive here, some of us,

Our sighs and moans reached the heavens,

Most of us were martyred among us,

You would say we saw the day of judgment.

I am Razi Woman, I became a mourner,

A light-giver to every darkness,

I have no gold or pearls left in my hand,

My burning trouble, you would say there is no cure.

The trauma caused by the loss of the lovely Buda was expressed for hundreds of years throughout our state geography with these lines:

Do not sing, nightingale, do not sing, it has become spring.

The nightingale's lament pierced my heart.

The time has come to buy and sell roses.

The Nemçe (Austrians) took our lovely Buda.

Ablution could no longer be performed at the fountains,

Prayer could no longer be performed in the mosques,

Places that were prosperous all became ruins,

The Nemçe took our lovely Buda.

Inside Buda is its long bazaar,

In the middle is the Sultan Ahmet Mosque,

Its structure resembles the image of the Kaaba,

The Nemçe took our lovely Buda.

I am the daughter of the Serdar inside Buda,

I am the apple of my mother's and father's eye,

I am a fatted hennaed lamb in a cage,

The Nemçe took our lovely Buda.

The ammunition caught fire, our minds were confused,

The Sultan mosques burned and caught fire,

All the children fell into the fire,

The Nemçe took our lovely Buda.

Budin is the head among the frontiers,

Its soil and stone are kneaded with blood,

Çerkez Alemdar is the head of the martyrs,

The Nemçe took our lovely Buda.

Three cannonballs were fired from the Qibla side,

It was Thursday, the sun was eclipsed,

It was Friday, Buda was taken,

The Nemçe took our lovely Buda.

The retreat that began in front of Vienna in 1683 resulted in the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) after a war that lasted sixteen years. One hundred and thirty-three years after the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman sultan lost territory for the first time. An army and a nation that advanced from 1071 to 1683 with songs are now retreating with laments. Now mothers are singing lullaby laments:

“Wake up my child, it is morning,

The birds are lamenting.

Your father has been martyred,

It is time to stop sleeping.

Lullaby my child, lullaby,

The frontiers are waiting for you.”

Karlowitz is a small town in Northern Serbia today. The treaty was signed in a tent set up on a small hill north of the town of Karlowitz, and the tent had four doors. The Turkish delegation entered through the south door, the German delegation through the north door, and the mediator state delegations entered through the east and west doors. Later, a four-doored gate representing the tent was built on the hill. In 1999, on the three-hundredth anniversary of the Treaty of Karlowitz, the Turkish Ambassador was also invited to the commemoration meeting. The Turkish ambassador replied, "I will come if you open the south door that is kept locked." When the organizing committee said "okay," the Turkish Ambassador entered through the south door again after three hundred years, together with the military attaché who girded his sword. Since that day, the door has been locked again. The Western World continues to keep the hatred and fear it feels against the Turkish nation alive in the depths of its soul.

The Karlowitz defeat was followed by the Treaty of Passarowitz signed with Venice and Austria in 1718. Then, with the 1774 Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, the loss of Crimea was experienced.

The 19th century is, in the words of İlber Ortaylı, "the longest century of the Empire." It is the century of collapse and genocide. The Morea Uprising and the massacre of twelve thousand Turks in one night, the occupation of Gagauzia by the Russian army in 1812, the fall of Belgrade (1815).

Belgrade. Isn't it a city name that is so foreign and so distant to us?

Your Honor;

I went to Belgrade in 1977. Or rather, I passed through Belgrade on a February day. It was a cold, foggy city. I didn't like it. Yet our ancestors loved this city very much. They shed so, so much blood for this city. They composed so many laments. When I read those laments, I was ashamed of our ancestors.

“I set out from Belgrade, it was 5 in the morning,

My Quran and my Martini were my companions.”

Or

“The road to Belgrade is a long rope,

We have no quilt over us.

Cry, my mother,

I remained a sacrifice in Belgrade.”

When I read the lines expressing that the ditches surrounding the Belgrade Fortress were full of blood, I was very moved years later. And I was ashamed of myself for not liking it when I passed through Belgrade in 1977. Then I visited the Belgrade Fortress. And I saw those ditches filled with blood. The longest century of the Empire is the most painful century.

The collapse accelerated with the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War (War of 93). The following lines describing the Defense of Plevna from the War of 93 are in our minds and hearts:

“The Danube River says it will not flow,

It says it will not destroy my surroundings.

The great Osman Pasha,

Says he will not leave Plevna.”

Our liquidation from Rumelia with the 1912-1913 Balkan War; the fall of Thessaloniki and Skopje, which were Turkish cities like Bursa and Konya... This time we compose a lament for Thessaloniki:

“To the ring of the steamer,

To the wave of the sea,

I sent my beloved,

To the fight for Thessaloniki.”

Or for Manastir, which is as Turkish as Edirne:

“In the middle of Manastir there is a pool,

Albanian, Bulgarian, Serb, Greek have become enemies to each other, throat to throat.”

In summary; a nation that advanced for six hundred and twelve years from 1071 to 1683 experienced a retreat that lasted two hundred and thirty-eight years from 1683 to 1921. American historian Prof. Dr. Justin McCarthy, in his book Death and Exile, stated with archival documents that between 1810-1918, while five million Turks were massacred in the Balkans and the Caucasus, five million Turks retreated to Anatolia. The Turkish Nation has experienced one of the greatest and longest genocides in history.

In Rumelia, in the rivers, the corpses of thousands of Turkish babies flowed. The trauma we experienced in the Balkan War at the beginning of the 20th century is so great that; the trauma of the lovely Buda is erased from our social memory. How could it not be great? To hide from Bulgarian gangs; mothers hiding in the reeds in the streams have to drown their own babies in the water with their own hands so that the sound of their crying, nursing babies is not heard and the Bulgarian gang members do not kill their other children.

Before 3 years had passed since the Balkan War; this time the First World War, whose goal was the sharing of the Ottoman Turkish State, begins. The Turkish army, preparing for war with rapid and radical reforms, fights heroically. It is such an ominous war; even the Germans, who are our allies, are not our friends. When İsmet Pasha asked an German Staff Officer he worked with at the General Staff in Istanbul, "What will be the reward if Germany wins this war?", the answer he received was "Turkey."

The Turkish army; despite all the negativity, retreated by fighting step by step.

The commander of the British army who entered Jerusalem in 1917 announced that the last Crusade had succeeded. When the British army entered Jerusalem; churches in Germany, our ally, also rang the victory bell. The British prime minister said, “Turks are the Native Americans of Asia. Their fate will be the same.”

In 1919, three hundred million Muslims lived in the world. Only three percent of these three hundred million Muslims, the geography between Sakarya and Aras, where nine million live, is not under occupation. And United European Christianity; rented the Greek Army as the Last Crusader Army to destroy the Turkish Nation that wanted to resist in this geography, and drove it into the interior of Anatolia.

Your Honor,

The retreat of the Turkish Nation, which began in front of Vienna in 1683 and lasted uninterruptedly for 238 years, finally stopped on the banks of the Sakarya. The armies fighting on the banks of the Sakarya are not just the Greek army and the armies of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. On the banks of the Sakarya; Alparslan's armies fought against Byzantine armies. The armies of Kilij Arslan, Murad Hudavendigar, Bayezid the Thunderbolt, Fatih, and Suleiman the Magnificent; fought against Crusader armies. In summary; Mustafa Kemal Pasha fought on the banks of the Sakarya on behalf of all the wars fought in the 850 years between 1071-1921, on behalf of Turkish history. Poet Necip Fazıl Kısakürek summarized this as follows.

‘’If my Lord wills, the waters will curl and twist,

Turkish history is struck on the back of the Sakarya.’’

It is Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha on whose back Turkish history is struck. Mustafa Kemal Pasha, on whose back Turkish history was struck at Sakarya, gave the following order on August 26, 1922, 11 months after the Battle of Sakarya: ‘’Our armies on the Western front, relying on divine help (God's will and help); will begin the attack on the enemy on Saturday, August 26th.’’

The Great Offensive is the first Turkish attack and victory with permanent results after 1683. The Defense of Plevna is a defensive war. The Battle of Gallipoli is a defensive battle. The victory of Kut-al-Amara is a defensive war. However; an army that was retreating launched an attack 239 years later, on August 26, 1922. This attack paved the way for the Turkish War of Independence to end in victory and for the Republic of Turkey to be established.

Your Honor,

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk cannot be understood by being evaluated only within the period he lived. Atatürk's position in world and Turkish history can only be understood and correctly identified as the historical figure who stopped the Turkish nation and the Turkish state, which began after the 1683 2nd Vienna defeat and continued until the banks of the Sakarya in 1921, 238 years later, from retreating from three continents to Anatolia and disappearing through genocides and deportations.

When Alparslan Türkeş said “Atatürk is the Himalaya of Turkish history,” he was expressing this truth. Yes, Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is the Himalaya of Turkish history.

Atatürk is the leader who led a nation that lamented, lost land, lost its homeland, retreated, and was defeated from the shores of Buda back to Victory. Atatürk is God's blessing to the Turkish Nation. The Republic of Turkey, of which Atatürk is the founder, is the 2nd Ergenekon for the Turkish nation. Atatürk is the Gray Wolf, Börteçine, who shows the way to the Turkish nation in its exit from Ergenekon in a spiritual sense.

The establishment of our Republic is not a fascist period where policies against the history, faith, and culture of the Turkish nation were pursued, as Erdoğan claims, but the resurrection of a nation that was wanted to be destroyed by the Crusades. During the Atatürk era; for the first time in centuries, Turkish history was saved from being a dynasty history and began to be scientifically examined on the ground of Great Turkish History. The 16 great Turkish Empires, starting with the Huns and reaching the Ottomans through the Göktürks, Uyghurs, and Karakhanids, were almost rediscovered. The great historian Fuat Köprülü was commissioned to write Ottoman history. We do not have the necessary time here to multiply the examples.

During the Atatürk era; the Presidency of Religious Affairs was established, and the Turkish Nation gained the opportunity to read the Holy Quran from a Turkish text.

Erdoğan's criticisms of Atatürk are unfair, baseless, unfounded, and scientifically empty claims. At the root of Erdoğan's criticisms of the Atatürk era is the secularism policy adopted by Atatürk. Since Tughril Beg was declared the Sultan of the East and the West by the Abbasid Caliph on January 24, 1058, the Turkish Nation has been both the sword and the shield of the Islamic World alone against the United Christian Western Civilization. Throughout human history, no nation has carried a burden of the magnitude carried by the Turkish Nation. The Turkish Nation waged this war, which began in 1058, alone until 1922. During all this time, the Turkish Nation asked for support from its religious brothers in this struggle only once between 1914-1918; however, the vast majority of those who lived under the protection, prosperity, and peace of the Ottomans for hundreds of years; not only did not provide support, but also took sides with the Crusader armies.

Your Honor;

Today, a genocide is taking place in Gaza. The Israeli army is mercilessly bombing Gaza. While this genocide is taking place, no political, economic, or social support comes from Muslim Arab countries for Gaza in any sense. On the contrary, rich Arab countries like the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are conducting joint exercises with the Israeli army. Yet the Turkish Nation; defended Gaza and the entire Arab Islamic world alone against a united civilization for a thousand years. At the end of this defense, our nation not only experienced political, military, economic, and cultural destruction. It also came to the brink of destruction demographically.

Mustafa Kemal's abolition of the caliphate was the result of this geopolitical and strategic necessity. If our state had been as powerful in 1923 as the state that conquered the lovely Buda in 1526, it would not have even occurred to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to abolish the caliphate.

The founder of our Republic, Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, explained this issue in the Nutuk as follows:

“I explained to the nation that the Turkish state and its handful of population cannot be subjected to the command of a caliph who is imagined to be burdened with the duty of establishing a state that includes all Muslims, in order for him to fulfill his duty. The nation cannot agree to this! The people of Turkey cannot take upon themselves such a great responsibility and such an illogical duty.

Our nation was made to act on this meaningless and empty view for centuries. But what happened?! Everywhere it went, it left millions of people. Do you know the amount of Anatolian children who were scorched and destroyed in the deserts of Yemen, I said. Do you know how many people were destroyed to protect Syria, Iraq, to survive in Egypt, to hold on in Africa?! And what was the result, do you see?! I said.

Those who have the idea of challenging the world to the caliph and making him have the power of disposal in all the affairs of the Islamic world should demand this duty not only from the people of Anatolia but from the large Muslim masses who have 8-10 times the population! The new Turkey and the new people of Turkey have nothing else to think about but their own life and happiness... They have no part left to give to others, I said.

To explain another point well to the people, I stated the following: Let's assume for a moment, I said, that Turkey accepts the mentioned duty... Let it walk with the aim of uniting and directing the entire Islamic world at one point and let it have succeeded! Very well, but if the nations we want to take under our allegiance and administration say, “You have done us great services and help, thank you. But we want to remain independent. We do not find it appropriate for anyone to interfere with our independence and sovereignty! We are capable of directing and managing ourselves!

In that case, will all this effort and sacrifice of the Turkish people be risked just to receive a thank you and a prayer?!

It was seen that they wanted to destroy the Turkish people for an empty desire and ambition, for a delusion and imagination. The nature of the idea of giving duty and authority to the caliphate and the caliph consisted of this.”

For the Turkish Nation, secularism is not just the separation of religion and state affairs; beyond that, it is a national security and national existence protection strategy. The Turkish Nation, which had to fight alone against the United Christian West for nearly a thousand years, reached the point of exhaustion at the beginning of the 20th century. It no longer has the power to continue a religious war. The priority of the Republic; has been to fight for the protection of the existence of the Turkish Nation, the provision of its security, and the attainment of the prosperity that the Turkish people deserve.

The response I gave to Erdoğan can only be evaluated within this framework.

Your Honor;

I did not insult President Erdoğan. I rejected the expressions of Ak Party Chairman Erdoğan that the policies followed during the Atatürk era damaged the nation's faith, history, and culture, and I stated that the policies followed by Erdoğan damaged the faith, history, and culture of the Turkish Nation.

I stated the results of the policies followed by Erdoğan one by one in my speech. I stated that Erdoğan "infiltrated the spy FETÖ into the Turkish State, handed the Turkish State over to FETÖ, and had FETÖ establish a parallel state."

Erdoğan said at the Ak Party Group Meeting on July 15, 2008, that he was the prosecutor of the Ergenekon cases, which were a FETÖ plot:

“Our nation is following this closely and is making its evaluation accordingly. Because it is very important who is acting as a lawyer for whom. While we have not assigned ourselves any title, they are kindly giving us the duty of prosecutor. This is also a good thing. Why, the prosecutor exists on behalf of the nation, the prosecution authority is there on behalf of the nation, and we are also in an effort to seek rights and defend rights on behalf of the nation, if it is a prosecutor in this sense, yes, I am a prosecutor.”

In addition, it is among the issues reflected in the press that Erdoğan allocated his own official vehicle to Zekeriya Öz, the prosecutor of the Ergenekon plot cases, the FETÖ prosecutor.

Erdoğan, even before the July 15 FETÖ Coup, declared himself that FETÖ is a spy organization. Erdoğan said the following about FETÖ at the Trabzon rally in March 2014:

“…He also rented a part of the media. Together with them, he also brought some employer circles under his command with blackmail. Now they are in an effort to wear us down. But I say, look, I have no doubt about my ablution, nor do I have any doubt about my prayer. You deal with those who have doubts about their ablution. You cannot deal with us. But you are currently involved in work that threatens the national security of the country. You cannot wiretap the Prime Minister, the President, the Speaker of the Parliament, the ministers. No judge can make a decision about this. But unfortunately, because they are a spy organization, they resorted to these ways, even wiretapping us. Can you imagine? They are entering the harem of those who govern the country. They are using this as a threat element.

The expression he used about me recently is this, Shame on you, shame on you!” “This tall one did us a lot of treachery!’’ he said. How did we commit treachery, they came to establish seventeen universities, I approved them all. Was this treachery? What kind of conscience is this! He asked for land for schools, we gave it. They invited us in the international community, we referred them to heads of state and government. They said Olympics, we gave all kinds of support. What kind of ingratitude is this! What did you want that you couldn't get?’’

The issue that FETÖ is a spy organization is stated as follows in the report of the TBMM Coup Attempt Investigation Commission established after the July 15 coup:

“…It is carrying out espionage activities through its members with the aim of disclosing Turkey's plans and activities in the field of foreign policy, security, and intelligence, and revealing state secrets…” The organization has marketed the information it obtained by carrying out espionage activities on behalf of non-national authorities through state resources to foreign intelligence agencies. (FETÖ Fethullahist Terrorist Organization Internal Security Developments series:3, 2019, T.R. Ministry of Interior Internal Security Strategies Department p.87-88) Erdoğan has declared that he gave all kinds of support to FETÖ, which is a spy organization that threatens the national security of the Turkish State, that he supported its school and educational activities so that the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization could meet its personnel needs, and that they were a reference for this spy organization to operate in the international arena.

The fact that FETÖ is a spy organization is certain, as shown by Erdoğan's TBMM Commission report and many court decisions. FETÖ established its parallel state structure thanks to Erdoğan's wrong policies. Erdoğan confirmed this determination of mine with the following statement he made to journalists about FETÖ in February 2014:

“In the 2010 Referendum, FETÖ had one goal. To take over the administrative and judicial judiciary, and they succeeded. Therefore, they said, “when this business goes to the judiciary, we will do what is necessary there too.” They solved it in both the first court and the higher court. They completed all three legs. The intelligence leg of the business, the police leg, the judiciary leg.”

FETÖ, to which Erdoğan declared he gave all kinds of support, found the ground it needed with the 2010 Referendum and, in Erdoğan's words, took over Turkish intelligence, the Turkish Police, the Turkish Judiciary, that is, the Turkish State.

Kerim Tosun, a former member of the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors who was released after being detained for a while within the scope of the investigation into the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization, stated in his statement to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office: “I know that nearly one hundred and twenty of the members of the Court of Cassation, determined as 160s, are members of the community.” Kerim Tosun stated that he met some of these people in community chats.

Nazım Kaynak: “After I became the president of the Court of Cassation, the division of labor of the chambers in the Court of Cassation was changed. The community itself carried out this change. Cases known to the public that are important for the community, such as Balyoz, Match-fixing, Hypnosis, Kurdoğlu, entered the jurisdiction of the chambers where the community was strong.” he had stated.

Erdoğan, speaking at the Extraordinary Religious Council of the Presidency of Religious Affairs in August 2016: “We were saying that these are an organization that has organized within the TSK and has the character to point the weapons there at the nation when the time comes, they didn't believe it.

Despite all our hesitations regarding the person and staff at the head of the structure, we showed tolerance to them for the sake of the widespread education, aid, and solidarity activities they seemed to be carrying out at home and abroad. We even showed tolerance because they said God. We said, we have one thing in common, we said. Especially after 2012, we had put our reservations about this structure very clearly. I also had serious doubts about the operations and cases directed at the TSK staff that accelerated during this period, and I shared these with the authorities. The reasons for the accusations and arrests directed at some commanders whom I knew very closely and worked with for many years did not convince me.

Despite everything, I am saddened that I could not reveal the true face of this treacherous organization much earlier. Because of this, I know that we have an account to give to both our Lord and our Nation. May God and my Nation forgive us.”

In an interview he gave to CNN Türk on 08.06.2018; the sentence “We grew FETÖ, we were deceived” was again spoken by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

In the book “Why is it So Hard to Make Change in Turkey” published in 2015 by the then Prime Ministry Undersecretary Ömer Dinçer, he describes exactly what they did against the MGK (National Security Council) recommendation decision as follows:

“After the MGK's recommendation decision against this “FETÖ parallel structuring danger” within the state and army was notified to the Prime Ministry, I opened the subject to our Prime Minister and we decided to put the incoming letter ‘in its file’.”

This decision text was not opened for signature in the Council of Ministers and no action was taken regarding it.

No one except the ministers who attended the MGK meeting knew about the subject, and care was taken not to cause a result that would lead them to worry.

Our Prime Minister had undertaken all the social and political risk on behalf of the government, and I had undertaken the legal risk.”

The price of undertaking this risk; was the Turkish army being subjected to heavy psychological attacks with Ergenekon, Balyoz, espionage, Selam Tevhid, MIT trucks, intelligence operations disguised as lawsuits, our Naval Forces experiencing a second Navarino raid, our military secrets falling into the hands of foreign services, and our judiciary, police, and intelligence services coming under the control of a spy organization. The strategic memory of the Turkish state has been bruised. Finally, when the General Staff fell into the hands of FETÖ, the July 15 coup took place, and while hundreds of our citizens were martyred, our TBMM was bombed.

As can be seen, Erdoğan; confessed that he knew about FETÖ's operations against the TSK and that they showed tolerance because they said God.

By turning a blind eye to the theft of exam questions by the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization, tolerance was shown to higher education institutions and critical state cadres falling into the hands of spies. In the statistical analyses conducted, it was determined that FETÖ had seized all ÖSYM exam questions, including critical areas, between 2000-2013. (Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) as an Organized and Financial Crime Organization Workshop Report, February 11, 2017, Ankara, p.42)

People tried for the coup attempt confessed that ninety percent of the graduates of the Military Academy were associated with FETÖ. Indeed, after the July 15 Treacherous Coup Attempt;

24,706, 150 of whom were generals, from the Turkish Armed Forces,

Approximately 38,000 from the Police,

Approximately 4,000 from the judicial and administrative judiciary,

2,346 from YÖK (Council of Higher Education),

2,018 from the Ministry of Health,

1,642 from the Ministry of Finance,

1,519 from the Presidency of Religious Affairs,

369 from the Ministry of Interior,

302 from the Prime Ministry,

605 from the Social Security Institution,

A total of 125,678 FETÖ bureaucrats, including 312 from TRT, were dismissed.

This number alone shows the magnitude of the risk undertaken by Erdoğan. Isn't the fact that the Yeni Şafak newspaper, the semi-official publication organ of the government, showed crypto FETÖ members within the economic bureaucracy as the reason for the failure in the economy in April 2025, an indication that the danger still continues?

These cadres and positions were reached during the AKP and Erdoğan era. Erdoğan's; confessions that they showed tolerance to FETÖ's infiltration into the sanctity of the Turkish State and that they gave FETÖ everything they wanted; and the trial processes after July 15 and the determinations made by state institutions; show that this Crusader spy organization caused great damage to the Turkish State. Erdoğan and official authorities have confirmed my words. No Crusade has been able to infiltrate the Turkish State or attempt to corrupt the spirituality of the Turkish State.

Your Honor;

While the spy FETÖ Terrorist Organization was organizing within the state and carrying out the Ergenekon, Balyoz, espionage, arrest of the MIT undersecretary, and MIT trucks operations against the Turkish Armed Forces, the Turkish Intelligence Organization, the General Directorate of Security, the Turkish Judiciary, and consequently the Turkish Nation and the Turkish State; Erdoğan was Prime Minister. And after July 15, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, by saying "May my Lord and my Nation forgive me," expressed and accepted that the cooperation made with FETÖ and handing over state institutions to FETÖ was wrong and that he regretted it.

Your Honor;

I said that these wrong policies caused more damage to the Turkish State than all the Crusades. Because the Crusades came to Anatolia from outside, from Europe. However, the last Crusade, FETÖ, attacked our country as a fifth column from within Anatolia. Erdoğan was very late in taking precautions against FETÖ, which is the last Crusade.

Erdoğan, who did not take seriously the warning made in the MGK in 2003 that FETÖ is a Crusader spy organization; until 2015, paved the way for the Turkish State and, in the end, the Ak Party government, and its closest colleagues to be targeted.

FETÖ did not hide that it was a Crusade either. Fethullah Gülen, the ringleader of the FETÖ terrorist organization, who viewed the Crusades positively, said on August 20, 2016, “It is not very dangerous for the Crusader to occupy your country. Because there are red lines between you and them. Once, they do not touch your women, your daughter, they do not touch your temple, the crusaders who have not touched...” (FETÖ-PYD with its Different Dimensions, Ankara 2019, Presidency of Religious Affairs Publications, p.93, High Board of Religious Affairs Decision:30.01.2019/6)

The FETÖ ringleader; in his letter to Pope John Paul II dated February 1998, said, “…We are here to be a part of the mission of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) initiated and continued by Pope Paul VI. We desire to see the realization of this mission...” Even the FETÖ ringleader and those with him kissed the Pope's hand during their Vatican visits. Similarly, Sheikh Nazim al-Haqqani, the teacher of Kadir Mısıroğlu, who is accepted as a great historian by Erdoğan and the Ak Party and is the owner of the words "If an American puppet caliph comes, let him come, whoever comes. Let's bring back the caliphate." "I wish the Greeks had won, then the caliphate would not have been destroyed, the sharia would not have been abolished, the madrasa would not have been closed, the hodjas would not have been hanged, none of this would have happened," also declared that the Pope came to visit him specially and made his men kiss the Pope's hand. It has been stated repeatedly by the Papacy that the purpose of interreligious dialogue is especially the Christianization of the Asian continent. The Christmas Speech made by Pope John Paul II in 1999 needs to be well understood. In his speech, the Pope said “...We Christianized Europe in the first millennium, the African and American continents in the second millennium, and our goal in the third millennium is Asia…”, “…Our church is for the happiness of all humanity. The meaning of interreligious dialogue for us is the path to bringing all people to the Bible and the Church, that is, to Christianity…”

Interreligious dialogue meetings; are a Vatican-centered post-modern mission movement that carries within it plans to primarily make Muslims doubt Islam, to Christianize them insidiously, to bring ethnic identities to the fore, to Protestantize Islam in a way, and to distance it from its essence. (Religious Abuse and the FETÖ Reality, Istanbul, 2018, Presidency of Religious Affairs Publications, p. 128)

As is known, the funeral of the FETÖ ringleader was also buried not according to Islamic procedures but according to Protestant procedures. This effort, aimed at corrupting institutional religious thought in Turkey, aims to weaken the basic sources of information and legitimacy of the Islamic religion (the Holy Quran and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad). (FETÖ Fethullahist Terrorist Organization Internal Security Developments series:3,2019, T.R. Ministry of Interior Internal Security Strategies Department p.34)

FETÖ, which took over higher education, national education, religious affairs, and critical points of the state, applied this plan of de-faithing and Christianization against the Turkish Nation. The FETÖ ringleader said, “Everyone should review and reform their view of their surroundings by taking the kalima-i tawhid as a basis. Even those who confess only the first part of the kalima-i tawhid, that is, without saying the second part, which is Muhammad is the messenger of God, should be looked at with a look of mercy and compassion.” (FETÖ Ringleader Towards Global Peace (From Cocoon to Butterfly-3) p.131)

Thanks to the AKP and Erdoğan giving them everything they wanted, FETÖ, using the state's resources, applied the inculturation project to the Turkish Nation with similar propaganda. It tried to de-faith the nation by attacking the steel armor and faith of this nation, which has fought against the Crusades with its property and life for a thousand years. The West, which brought the end of the Ottomans by having its agents establish Wahhabism, which considers all love for the Prophet Muhammad as non-religious; distanced Turkish youth from their faith with the same de-faithing tools and through FETÖ.

Erdoğan, by allowing the last Crusade, FETÖ, to establish a state within the state, to establish a "parallel state" in Erdoğan's words; caused the Turkish State to suffer more damage than all the Crusades.

This determination I made is a political criticism expressed within the scope of freedom of thought.

Erdoğan's struggle against the last Crusade, FETÖ, only began very slowly after the 2011 elections, strengthened after December 17/25, 2014, but turned into a real struggle after July 15, 2016. In summary, although Erdoğan's struggle against the last Crusade, FETÖ, began after 2014, this does not eliminate the existence of the destruction that occurred earlier.

Erdoğan is "Prime Minister," not "President," during the period when I criticized his mentioned policies. In other words, the criticisms in question are technically directed at the policies of the Prime Minister, not the President.

Your Honor;

Erdoğan, in the speech I mentioned at the beginning of my defense and for which I am being tried because of the answer I gave; stated that the policies followed during the Atatürk era damaged the culture and history of the Turkish Nation. Yet, during the Erdoğan era, large segments of the Turkish Nation began to cool off from their religion because of those who deceive our nation with God and with the spiritual values of the Turkish nation, and the number of deists and atheists exceeded sixteen percent during the Erdoğan era.

In the decisions and publications of the High Board of Religious Affairs of the Presidency of Religious Affairs, this situation is explained as: “The increase in deism and atheism in Turkey is a reaction in the context of morality to the gap between the words and actions of Muslims.” (Current Religious Issues Consultation Meeting-Current Faith Problems, p.53, Istanbul December 2020, Presidency of Religious Affairs Publications, High Board of Religious Affairs Decision: 05.02.2020/5)

It is a known fact that some people who appear religious in appearance show the exact opposite behavior and reaction when their worldly or personal interests are at stake. This situation has been conceptualized as “ostentatious religiosity/show Islam.” When we think about our country and the Islamic geography; our appearance of religiosity and our tendency to obtain sin and worldly things unfairly present a complete contradiction.

This reality peaks during times of economic or political crisis, and opportunism almost rises to the position of the most valid currency. These contradictions of the religious strengthen the lives of non-religious circles and become a factor that distances them from religion and the religious sphere. It is understood from their own statements that the main factor in the direction of people who claim to be deist or atheist today is these moral contradictions exhibited by the religious. Seeing these contradictions of theirs constantly on the religious strengthens their own atheist and deist stances. Thus, a Muslim person who has not been able to catch the dimension of piety; while directly harming religion with his life, indirectly contributes to the strengthening of anti-religious movements and people drifting towards them. (Current Religious Issues Consultation Meeting-Current Faith Problems, p.154, Istanbul December 2020, Presidency of Religious Affairs Publications, High Board of Religious Affairs Decision: 05.02.2020/5)

Although religion and religious values have a historical past, their exploitation for worldly purposes in commercial and political terms by some religious-looking communities, sects, and groups in an increasingly increasing manner recently; lowers the value of religion and religious commitment in the eyes of people. This situation distances some people from religion and drags them into irreligion and atheism. Exploiting religion for commercial and political fortune is completely contrary to the spirit of the Quran and the universal and eternal goals of Islam. (Selim Özarslan, Reasons for Turning to Atheism in Our Country, Diyanet Scientific Journal volume:55 issue:4 October-November-December 2019, p. 1022)

Your Honor;

After 2011, 5 million registered and 2 million unregistered Syrians, 2 million Afghans, 2 million Africans, and 2 million refugees and illegal immigrants including Iranians, Pakistanis, Russians, Ukrainians, and others were let into Anatolia. In addition to this situation disrupting our national fabric; there are a high number of people with Salafi jihadist mentality among those who come. Salafis are the arch-enemies of communities and sects that come from the Ahl al-Sunnah tradition, including Bektashism.

ISIS and Al-Qaeda can be given as examples of Salafism, which is one of the groups most prone to being used by imperialism. Unfortunately, as a result of millions of refugees and illegal immigrants being flooded into our country uncontrollably, Salafism is also spreading rapidly within Anatolia. The disruption of Anatolia's demography, the attempt to disrupt the culture and faith of the Turkish Nation, and the infiltration of spies into the Turkish State are confirmed by Erdoğan's statements and the official statements of state institutions.

There is no element of insult in my words that targets Erdoğan's personality. There is criticism of his actions and policies. Erdoğan himself says these, accepts them, and even expresses his regret by saying “May my Lord and my Nation forgive me.”

It is not possible to accept that the act attributed to me has been proven, as the expression of the ideas that Erdoğan himself accepts and adopts by me does not correspond to the elements defined within the scope of the TCK (Turkish Penal Code) for the act of insult.

Your Honor;

Finally; due to the state discipline I possess, I have to touch upon a principle that I think all Turkish citizens should acquire.

I have been criticizing Ak Party Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the harshest way for years. Because of these criticisms of mine, no investigation has ever been opened against me on charges of insult. I criticized President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, but I never thought of insulting him. No matter how angry I got because of the policies he followed and the statements I found wrong, I never thought of insulting him. Because whether there is a legal regulation for insulting the President or not; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the head of state of the Republic of Turkey, which is the last link of the ancient Turkish State, whose existence is expressed by the 16 Turkish States on its coat of arms.

In the Turkish Nationalist political tradition that I come from and am honored to be a member of, heads of state are not insulted. Even if we criticize them politically, the Turkish Head of State, which is the only office before which the Turkish Standard bows, is not insulted. As long as he is in that office, it is the duty of every honorable citizen of the Republic of Turkey not only to protect the Presidency and the honor of the office out of respect for that office, but also to defend it against internal and external enemies. In addition, the President knows that Ümit Özdağ has stood by the Republic of Turkey against real and potential attacks both on July 15 and after July 15, and has stood against structures like FETÖ.

However, it is also a duty that falls to our national honor to expect everyone sitting in the office of the President of the Republic of Turkey, including Erdoğan, to respect Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Commander-in-Chief of our War of Independence and the founder of the Republic of Turkey.

Similarly, even if he is the President; criticizing by stating mistakes without insulting and without exceeding the limits of criticism is a "citizenship duty," as stated in the court decisions I mentioned in my defense.

Indeed, the reason I am detained here for another case is the Zafer Party's opposition to the second negotiation process held with Öcalan and the PKK terrorist organization, called a Turkey without terror. In the first negotiation process with terror, the path was set out by saying let mothers not cry. Of course, let mothers not cry, but the structure you are trying to reach an agreement with by negotiating is not a community of responsible, honorable, trustworthy people. On the contrary, this structure has cooperated openly and secretly with every state hostile to Turkey and is a gang of murderers involved in all kinds of criminal activities, including drugs.

We know that the leaders of this gang sent thousands of people to their deaths without any pity and martyred thousands of soldiers and civilians. Therefore, mothers cried more at the end of the first negotiation process with terror. Moreover, the PKK, which benefited from the first negotiation process with terror; found the opportunity to organize and occupy in the north of Syria under the name of YPG with Turkey's turning a blind eye, and even support until 2013. We warned then that there would be no negotiation with the PKK, and we are warning today as well. A Turkey without terror, God forbid, should not lead to a Turkey with more terror. The terrorist organization and the imperialist powers behind it; just as they usurped our oil resources by tearing Mosul-Kirkuk from the homeland at the beginning of the 20th century, they aim to both usurp our water resources and break the bond between Turkey and the Turkish World by tearing our Southeastern and Eastern Anatolia Regions at the beginning of the 21st century.

As it was yesterday, today too; I am saying that it is not right to trust the PKK, the Zafer Party is saying it. Let us not change our Constitution to satisfy the PKK. Let us not give up on the national, unitary, and secular state. If the PKK is really going to surrender unconditionally, no one will oppose it. Here today, the reason I am here; is that I say let us fight with the PKK, not negotiate.

There is a propagandist journalist whom the government loves very much. His initials are ROK. ROK is also the unofficial spokesperson for the negotiations with Öcalan. When the Imrali process began, ROK said; “They will make those who do Turkish Nationalism in this process pay the price.” I am now paying this price as a detainee in Silivri, being held hostage for Öcalan.

May God protect the Turkish Nation and the Turkish State. I will of course pay this price for the Turkish Nation and the Turkish State, for whose security I have fought throughout my life. By being here; I am standing in respect for the cherished memories of our martyrs and the valuable existence of our veterans.

Your Honor;

In conclusion, my words, which are alleged to contain criminal elements; for the reasons I explained above, do not exceed the limits of political criticism, so I request my acquittal.

Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 138 of our Constitution; “Judges are independent in their duties. They give judgments according to their conscience in accordance with the Constitution, law, and justice.

No organ, authority, or person can give orders or instructions to courts and judges, send circulars, or make recommendations or suggestions in the use of judicial power.” is regulated as.

In a world where a German peasant challenges his king by saying there are judges in Berlin, we know that there are judges in Turkey, and that the only master of some consciences and honors are only those people who carry honor and conscience.

The issue that will make the principle of “Justice is the foundation of property” not just a writing on the wall, but the foundation of the Republic of Turkey; is the judgment you will give on behalf of the Turkish nation, in accordance with the Constitution, laws, equity, and other sources of law, and independently and in accordance with the nation's conscience.

I present my respects to the entire Turkish Nation and the members of the Turkish judiciary who are fighting to protect their independence."