Barış Özcan's 2017 'FETÖ' post emerges: 'The claims on Ekşi Sözlük...'

YouTuber Barış Özcan responded to the FETÖ allegations against him via his personal blog. 

In his post, where he stated, "As everyone knows, I have responded to all these baseless claims in detail in the past, both through individual and official statements," Özcan said, "My request to you, my dear followers, is that you remain aware of such manipulative attempts and always listen to reliable information."

Following Özcan's statement, his response to a thread opened about him on Ekşi Sözlük in 2017 has resurfaced.

Özcan had said the following:

I knew there was a page about me on Ekşi Sözlük. However, for the last few months, I hadn't read the new entries as I have been busy with the SCARECROW project for a significant portion of the time I set aside for my daily tasks and the production of my weekly videos. When I realized that the questions under my videos asking “what do you say about the allegations against you?” were related to some posts published on Ekşi Sözlük, I felt the need to exercise my right to reply. Unfortunately, since I am not an Ekşi Sözlük writer, I am writing from here. I would be happy if dictionary writer friends could share it there as well.

I have no objections to comments criticizing my appearance, face shape, or image. I don't like the face I see when I look in the mirror either. 

Since similar issues bother me as well, I have reached a point where I cannot watch my own videos. Thanks to some friends—I have no doubt they are well-intentioned—they have given advice and explained the subject with diagrams. 

I respect all the suggestions regarding changing my glasses or not wearing “pajamas.” Although I am warm to the idea of working in pajamas, I will take these recommendations into account. Since I opened my channel, my biggest goal has been to make my videos entirely using external footage or animations. 

Unfortunately, YouTube is not my profession, so I cannot spare much time for it. If I can reach a level where I can make a living from this using Patreon or another platform, we will be able to watch the topics I want to explain instead of me in my videos.

Another group of writer friends went a bit further and expressed that they thought I was a “member of the sect” (cemaatçi) because of my appearance. When the platform is “Ekşi Sözlük,” one has to be prepared for such “sour” (ekşi) words. As someone who defends freedom of thought, I cannot question why they think this way. But still, to try to understand, I thought of this:

If there is a “sect member look” on my face, it is an innate feature. I have never had plastic surgery in my life. I haven't even had my front tooth, which is heavily criticized, fixed. Therefore, I did not choose this look. There is not much I can do about this. (Maybe I will get my front tooth fixed in the future)

Another group of writer friends (who are few in number but have spent quite a lot of effort writing) went even further and tried to associate me with terrorist organizations. This is the part I object to. Let alone a major act of treason like “attempted coup” or other types of terror crimes, I have never committed any crime in my life—including traffic offenses—and I have taken care not to.

That is why I have lived as an honest person without any lawsuits filed against me in the past, just as I do today. Despite my principle of not producing content on topics other than art, design, and technology on my channel, I published videos expressing my thoughts on the failed July 15 coup attempt and terrorist incidents before it. 

 I condemned all kinds of terrorism, coups, and attempts at these. Those who know me, those who know me, also know what kind of life I want to live. Therefore, I attribute these friends' claims to their not knowing me, and I want to see what they wrote as exaggerated versions of the formal claims I mentioned above. I am sure these writer friends are people who, like most of us, love their country very much and show the reflex to make such outbursts because they cannot stomach the slightest interference against it. 

Out of respect for the research these friends, whose names I don't even know, have done about me for this cause, I will write my explanations regarding the issues they misunderstood below.

Let me start with my participation in the +1T Design Days event. I was a “speaker,” not an “organizer,” of this “international” event jointly organized by the world's most important newspaper design organization, “SND – Society for News Design,” and “Zaman Newspaper.”

Because I worked at Adobe, the world's largest design software manufacturer, I visited almost all newspapers and magazines in Turkey many times for my job. I built friendships with the designers working there and tried to solve the problems they experienced while using Adobe products. I have been a speaker at more than 600 similar events. One of the sponsors of the event in question was Adobe, the company I worked for (see the photo below). I suppose there is nothing more natural than being invited as a speaker to an event we sponsor. You can watch the same content as my speech video, which is shown as evidence (!) against me on Ekşi Sözlük, at another event here. 

On the other hand, I have been marked with an arrow in a photo taken at the +1T event. I cannot pass without mentioning the other speakers not marked in the same photo, and Turkey's most important photojournalist Ara Güler, the most valuable graphic designer Bülent Erkmen, and dozens of other respected names in their professions who could not make it into that photo. What crime could I have committed by attending the same event as such people and speaking “about design”? I hope I don't need to remind you that this event took place before July 15 and that the newspaper in question was operating legally in the Republic of Turkey at that time, and was visited many times by many ministers and bureaucrats, including our President.

Let's come to the claim that I “fled to the USA.” To date, I have made more than 100 trips to more than 40 countries, mostly for work. I lived in some of these countries for more than 4 years in total. Since the headquarters of the company I work for is in the USA, I have traveled back and forth 15-20 times so far and have lived there for more than 2 years in total. So, this is not my first time going abroad, nor is it my first time coming to the USA. As I mentioned in my previous videos on my channel, the reason I came here is for my son's education and because I was invited to carry out international projects as a change ambassador selected by YouTube. 

Indeed, my project called SCARECROW is the first fruit of this. I continue to do these and similar projects, and I always share what I do. On the other hand, my projects in Turkey are still continuing at full speed. Therefore, just like in the past, I continue to live in two countries now.

The friends on Ekşi Sözlük were also curious about my son's name and the school he attends. When we gave him the name “Sufi,” there was no one with this name in Turkey. In fact, that's why this topic became one of the subjects in a program prepared on TRT on the day he was born. Those who are curious about why and how we gave him this name can read this article my wife wrote in 2011.

Those who are curious about his birth and upbringing can read dozens of articles written by my wife (thanks to my wife, we have an extremely transparent life 🙂 In short, when we gave him this name, we had never seen this name on anyone before and were not inspired by anyone living. The claim that the school he attends, which is tried to be proven with screenshots (!), is a “sect school” is also a completely baseless claim.

This school is not a Turkish School as claimed (there was only one other Turkish child besides Sufi in the 450-student school last year), nor is it even a private school. It is a “Public School,” which is the most common type of school in the USA, i.e., a state school as you know it.

As I mentioned above, the reason I have to give all these details is my respect for the effort spent on the posts claiming the opposite. Although I cannot follow the Ekşi Sözlük platform very closely and cannot be a writer there, I have always admired the sharp wit that many of its writers possess. I hope the friends who wrote these posts could be convinced by the evidence I presented above. If they still haven't been, both my name and my e-mail address are clear. If they reach out to me, I can clear up all the question marks in their minds. As I stated before, I believe that there are patriotic feelings behind their approach. That's why my door is always open.