Who is this George Soros?

The world first heard the name George Soros after the end of the Cold War, and it became widely known in the first half of the 2000s. He was referred to as a “money wizard,” “stock market speculator,” and “money market acrobat.” His wealth was immense. It was as if everything he touched turned to gold.

Whatever he laid his hands on, he won. According to media reports, he spent a considerable portion of his earnings on “democracy,” “freedom,” “human rights,” and an “open society.” For this reason, he was held in high regard by civil society activists and liberals both globally and in our country.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the name Soros first appeared on the political stage due to the financial aid he provided to Eastern European countries. Subsequently, his name entered wider circulation during the process of the color revolutions that took place in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan in 2003, 2004, and 2005, respectively (popular uprisings where governments changed and were replaced by US-backed regimes, also known as the Orange, Tulip, Rose, or Carnation revolutions).

He supported the opposition, opposition media, civil society organizations, and youth movements in these countries. That is why liberals and liberal leftists (whatever that means) looked at Soros as if he were a “messiah.”

According to them, Soros was a “philanthropist” who generously spent his wealth and made bountiful donations for “democracy,” “human rights,” and “freedom.”

So, is Soros a champion of democracy as liberals and second-republicans believe?

Certainly not…

SOROS AND THE WEB OF THE CIVIL SPIDER

After the name Soros became associated in Turkey with color revolutions and the financial support he provided to internal unrest in countries targeted by US imperialism, Mustafa Yıldırım was the first to describe the actions of Soros and his ilk in detail and comprehensively in his book in the 2000s.

In his excellent work titled “Sivil Örümceğin Ağında” (In the Web of the Civil Spider), which was first published in May 2004 and made a great impact, reaching high sales figures, Mustafa Yıldırım explained with documents who Soros funded and how, through the organization he founded called the “Open Society Foundation,” from Latin America to the Balkans, and from Central Asia to the Middle East.

He once again listed which covert and overt coups were supported by imperialism under the guise of “democracy,” “transparency,” “justice,” “freedom,” and “civil society.”

The Open Society Foundation, founded by Soros, provides detailed information on its website (www.opensocietyfoundations.org) about its activities, the projects it supports, its budget, and the countries in which it operates, while also offering sections titled “Who we are?”, “How we work?”, and “What we do?”.

It lists what they have done since 1979 and which projects they have carried out in more than 120 countries. From this site, we learn that their total expenditure to date is 16.8 billion dollars, and their 2020 budget was 1.2 billion dollars. Many sources state that Soros has spent 32 billion dollars on projects supported by the foundation he established.

SOROS’S STORY THAT REQUIRES EXPLANATION

George Soros was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1930. He belongs to a Jewish family. During the German occupation, he was able to survive with his family thanks to fake identities. Two years after the end of the Second World War, in 1947, Soros emigrated to England and attended university at the world-renowned London School of Economics (LSE).

Among his professors was the famous thinker Karl Popper, known for his work in the fields of philosophy of science and political philosophy. He was the professor who influenced Soros the most, especially regarding open society and liberalism. This influence was reflected in both Soros’s thoughts and his business life.

After his education in London, Soros emigrated to the USA in 1956. The first job Soros did in the USA was trading foreign currency and stocks. He bought them when they were cheap and sold them when they became expensive. He made good money this way. Over time, he rose to prominence in the financial world. He gained a great fortune with the international investment fund he established. Along with his political power, which developed in parallel with his economic power, Soros received honorary doctorate titles from many universities in Europe and the USA.

His personal wealth is approximately 9 billion dollars, and he is among the top 200 richest people in the world.

WHICH COUNTRIES BANNED SOROS’S ACTIVITIES?

Soros is someone who has drawn reactions and been the target of serious accusations in many countries around the world, including his homeland, Hungary. Because of his activities and the political structures and organizations he supports, Soros is a figure criticized by a wide spectrum of people, from nationalists to socialists, and by opponents of imperialism.

In 2018, Hungary passed a law to bring the work of foreign-funded civil society organizations in the country, including Soros’s Open Society Foundation, under supervision and to restrict their financial support, on the grounds that Soros was planning to settle Syrian refugees in Europe and was trying to implement this plan.

After the law, which is known in the public eye as the “Stop Soros” law, was passed, the Open Society Foundation in the capital Budapest moved its office to Berlin. Besides being Soros’s homeland, Hungary is also notable for being the country where the first branch of the Open Society Foundation was opened in 1984, even before the Cold War ended, the USSR collapsed, and the Warsaw Pact was dismantled.

Soros is also a suspected entrepreneur and political actor in England, where he lived and attended university for many years. It is believed that Soros had a hand in the event that went down in British economic history as “Black Wednesday” in 1992, just after the Cold War. Because while the British Pound lost significant value that day, Soros earned exactly 1 billion dollars in one day. That is why the British media ran headlines about Soros as “the man who broke the Bank of England.”

When Russia ended the activities of Soros’s Open Society Foundation in the country in 2015, the justification was: “activities that pose a threat to the foundations of Russia’s constitutional order and the security of the state.”

The British media wrote that in the 2016 referendum where Britain’s European Union (EU) membership was voted on, Soros gave 400 thousand pounds to circles supporting continued EU membership. For this reason, he was accused of interfering in the country’s internal affairs and faced a major backlash.

Soros never hid that he was close to the Democratic Party in the USA. For this reason, he was always a target for Republicans. When he donated 10 million dollars to Hillary Clinton’s election campaign when she was a presidential candidate, he was heavily criticized. He also frequently made headlines with his anti-Trump remarks.

SOROS’S ACTIVITIES IN TURKEY

The Open Society Foundation operated in Turkey for years, first under the name Open Society Institute and later as a foundation. Its representative office in Turkey was opened in 2001. In 2008, the Open Society Foundation was established in Turkey.

Among its founders were names like Can Paker, Osman Kavala, and İshak Alaton. The foundation supported many organizations, from TESEV to Anadolu Kültür AŞ.

Migration, asylum, Syrian refugees, Turkey’s EU membership, and relations with Armenia were among the projects supported by the foundation.

When Soros said at a conference he attended at Sabancı University, “Turkey’s best export product is the Turkish Army,” he drew a major public backlash. However, at that time, his relations with the AKP government were good. Soros, who received great support from circles supporting the AKP—in this context, liberals, second-republicans, and ethnic separatists—was, of course, also giving them great support.

Among Soros’s supporters, one should not forget the FETÖ members.

As a result of the lawsuits filed against the foundation’s managers, especially Kavala, the foundation announced that it ended its activities in Turkey in 2018.

WHO DEFENDS SOROS?

When one takes a brief look at Soros’s supporters in our country, it is observed that ethnic separatists, liberals, funded journalists, “number-cruncher” republicans, those who have a problem with Atatürk and the Republic Revolution, FETÖ, and the so-called leftists fed by FETÖ stand out.

The common point of these cadres is that they are problematic and at odds with the Republic of Turkey, the nation-state, and Kemalism.

They prioritize ethnicism and sectarianism, not citizen identity. From a liberal and liberal-left (whatever that means) perspective, they are against the Republic Revolution and look down upon it.

A large portion of them wrote in FETÖ’s media outlets in the past and were promoted. They met at Abant Platform Meetings. They gave great support to the AKP in its early years. They enthusiastically applauded the “opening” (peace) process.

They defended the Annan Plan in Cyprus. They stated that the PKK terrorist organization should be sat down with at the negotiating table.

They embraced conspiracy cases like Ergenekon and Balyoz and organized signature campaigns to ensure they were pursued to the end. They accepted the so-called genocide allegations, which are in reality an imperialist lie. They were among the signatories of the “ozurdiliyoruz.com” (we apologize) website established in this context.

Soros’s friends in Turkey are known as unconditional defenders of the EU and ardent supporters of NATO.

Issues such as full independence, anti-imperialism, national sovereignty, and citizen identity are never on their agenda. They view those who defend these principles, values, and concepts as reactionary, fascist, nationalist, coup-plotters, dinosaurs, or Ergenekon members, and try to discredit them.

Soros lovers have very good relations with both the government and the opposition; they manage to be men for all seasons. In the words of Özdemir İnce, they are “those who were born into the womb of power.”

İletişim Yayınları is the publishing house where they are most clustered. Birikim is the magazine they write for the most.

In the past, the Radikal newspaper, and subsequently the Zaman and Taraf newspapers, which were FETÖ’s media outlets, were the newspapers where they wrote and expressed their views the most.

They do not say “Turk,” they prefer to say “from Turkey.”

Like the intelligence officers, journalists, experts, and scientists of the USA and Germany who are trying to undermine Turkey, they argue that the Turkish identity is artificial and that the Turkish Nation is a forced concept.

The words that never fall from their lips are: “Let’s make peace with our past,” “let’s face our history,” “Kemalism has expired.”

In short: Once you know well what Soros has done, what he has funded, and the projects he has supported, it becomes easy to understand who the Soros lovers are in our country.