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Home > Authors > Prof. Dr. Gökhan Arslan > I can swear to it, but I cannot prove it

I can swear to it, but I cannot prove it

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Published: 05.05.2026 06:00

Eastern societies have always been prone to conspiracy theories.

They love listening to stories.

Sensible intellectuals, on the other hand, never get involved in this, assuming they think analytically and labeling conspiracy theorists as having intelligence problems.

For that reason, Turkish intellectuals keep their mouths shut for fear of causing a scandal and making themselves look ridiculous.

Of course, there are those who cannot keep them shut.

I, too, was raised with similar reflexes.

I did not speculate on subjects for which I did not know the answer.

That was until I read Murat Yetkin's book, "Spies for the Curious."

After reading this book, I gained a bit of courage.

I examined espionage and reverse-psychology operations in more detail.

Even if I couldn't explain it to my friends, I didn't stop speculating.

While talking about conspiracies for which I didn't know the answer, I played dumb.

For example, we said the 'July 15 Fethullahist uprising' was carried out by the cult.

We were met with all sorts of questions.

We said the suicides of young engineers at Aselsan were not normal.

We were met with "it was this, it was that" excuses.

We said there cannot be two major earthquakes on the same fault line.

We were met with "what do you know about it" responses.

We said that the rain clouds that have been pouring over our country for a month, filling dams to the brim, were frozen, transported to other regions, and made to rain there.

We were met with "don't talk nonsense" responses.

We said that there hasn't been a mass school shooting in the world within 24 hours of another, so it shouldn't have happened here at all.

We were met with "you've been watching too many short videos" responses.

Today, we woke up on the morning of May 4th to graders clearing snowy roads in the highlands of Eskişehir.

In short, we could not convince our nation, which believes that the pot gave birth, that the pot died.

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