Suleyman Shah is not only the name of a tomb

The Turkish Armed Forces carried out an extremely successful operation at the site of the Tomb of Suleyman Shah, Turkey's only territory outside its borders, both evacuating our soldiers who had been serving there for 8 months and taking Suleyman Shah's remains and transferring them to Eşme in Syria. Undoubtedly the TSK and the MİT are the heroes of this operation, but there is also a political will that assessed the necessity of carrying out this operation and took on its political risk.

Suleyman Shah is a historical figure of extremely high spiritual and symbolic meaning and importance for Turkey, indeed for the entire Islamic world. After all, he is the grandfather of Osman Gazi, the founder of the Ottoman state, which carried the banner of the Islamic world for 624 years. Although it is difficult today, for a shattered Islamic world, to appreciate his meaning in its entirety, he is one of the peak names in the historical and spiritual genealogy of Turkey's present existence.

This depth of meaning gives him an international standing which the Republic of Turkey, which strove for a historical break with the Ottomans, did not dare to sever, and which even the French could not object to accepting. For that reason, under the agreements made with the French when Syria was being established, the place where the tomb stands was regarded as Turkish soil. Even though the tomb had previously been moved twice because of dam construction, it continued to remain on Syrian territory.

Today, there are permanently Turkish Republic soldiers there to protect the land where this tomb stands. However, owing to the events taking place in Syria recently, both the Tomb and our soldiers there are in the position of open targets. In particular, ISIS's vandal attitude toward spiritual heritage and tombs is very well known. In this respect, the savagery displayed against Islam's historical presence, which cannot be explained even by Wahhabism and Salafism, constituted an open threat to the Tomb of Suleyman Shah.

Undoubtedly, Turkey cannot be expected to remain passive in the face of an attack on its spiritual symbols. However, given the location of the Tomb, it is very difficult both to protect it and, if necessary, to deliver logistics without casualties. Changing the place of the remains a third time, after they had already been moved twice, was determined to be the most reasonable option in the present situation.

In the end, the assessment that our soldiers there were also open targets is included in the overall assessment. In this overall assessment, in short, the lives of our soldiers, the prevention of a possible provocation by no longer being an open target, and the protection of our historical symbols have all been secured through a successful operation.

Despite this, the reactions displayed against this operation, especially by the parallel media and circles, show that for them the matter has gone beyond parallelism and turned into parallel-worship. That the Tomb of Suleyman Shah had been subjected to an attack together with the remains would evidently have delighted them even more. For the sake of the parallel, our historical values, which, when it suits them, they would leave not a trace of ash in the brazier over, those historical and spiritual values they never stop talking about, "Ottoman," "nation," "state," none of them has any value at all, it seems. They are in a state of mind in which, even if a verse came down from the sky, they would immediately leap to find something to say against it. Having left no common value between them and this country's people makes it a situation that will forever make one ask to whom this structure has sold its soul. Yet an event like the Suleyman Shah operation also offers them an opportunity. They could have seized this opportunity and made one think that a bond still remained with the people of this country, with its folk, with its spiritual values. They did not, they could not, for whatever is inside them is reflected on the outside.

OH ALI BULAÇ, MAY THE ONE LISTENING TO US BE THE GERMAN

By the way, Ali Bulaç, in his article the other day, took up last year's subject, the Germans having listened in on Turkey for espionage purposes and the stance we took toward this eavesdropping. The gist: you make a big fuss when our community listens in, so why do you say nothing to the Germans? As for me, after condemning the Germans for listening to us, to those who asked what we would do in response, I said "we are in no position to wage war over the eavesdropping, but of course this is not acceptable, and they will be held to account on every ground." This reaction had not satisfied the parallelists. They had demanded justice. They had demanded the very same treatment that was applied to them, which, according to them, meant waging war on Germany.

Ali Bulaç has also only just woken up to the matter. He has only now written about the parallelists' reactions of that day, together with my statement. So let me remind you of what I said in response to what was written that day:

"You bewildered parallelist! The Germans' listening to us, trying to listen to us, trying to learn our insides and outsides, is in the nature of Germanness. Just as it is in the nature of Frenchness, Americanness, Israeliness, Russianness.

They are other countries, other states. Since they appear to be friends, when we see this behavior toward us we hold them to account for it, we await their explanations, and if need be we look for ways to make them pay the price within the framework of international law. It is not something seen that one country declares war on another country because of this.

Yet according to our bewildered parallelists, we should declare war on Germany too...

Yet when other countries carry out this eavesdropping and espionage activity against Turkey, they ultimately damage the trust between friendly countries. They call it external security, they call it national interests, and though it is hard to explain to us and to the world, they explain it very easily to their own peoples.

But you have no face with which to explain what you did to anyone. Let us remind you that when you listened to this country's Prime Minister, President, Chief of General Staff, MİT Undersecretary and ministers, the name of this is treason against your own country, your nation, your homeland."