May a hard-worked crisis not make Gaza forgotten

Exactly 11 years ago, at the beginning of 2013. After the first democratic and rule-abiding election in Egypt's history, the President had been elected in the second round with only 52 percent, and the parliament had been formed. According to the results, with the Freedom and Justice Party crossing the finish line, Salafi parties more radical than the Brotherhood, competing with the Brotherhood over Islamism, had also entered the assembly. These Salafis, who would later support the coup against Morsi, accused Morsi of not being Islamist enough and put pressure on him over formal matters as much as possible. An incident engraved in memory from those days, aimed at the Brotherhood but entered into the Brotherhood's account, was this, for example: at prayer time one of the Salafis suddenly gave the call to prayer in the General Assembly hall while the session was continuing, and began to pray right there. The call to prayer is of course a very beautiful thing, but even its beauty depends on its being in the right place and at the right time. What made the same deputies do this act, which they had never done and could not do before or after, was putting it forward against Morsi, that is, against Morsi, who had always lived a life ready to give his life for the call to prayer. Just like the Kharijites putting forward the Qur'an against Ali. Of course, Ali did not declare the Kharijites, who put forward the Qur'an and said "judgment belongs to God alone," to be unbelievers in spite of everything; saying "they are using a true word in the wrong place against the wrong people," he only drew attention to their inappropriateness

in a way that would go down in history.

Let us note this incident here.

Football, of course, is not just football. Especially when Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray, Saudi Arabia, Ali Koç, the Republic and Atatürk are involved, the last thing you would expect from football is football. But when it seems not to be involved at all, yet all these components come together and produce a crisis, I have not the slightest doubt that the real factor and the real player these days is genocidal Israel. In fact, while Israel commits crimes of genocide in front of the world with all its barbarity and insolence, and while an uprising of conscience on the scale of a global intifada is taking place against it all over the world, it is a requirement of a conscientious mind to count every initiative that diverts attention away from there as part of this game. Especially if, as a result of these initiatives, grounds that will provoke Turkish-Arab hostility are suddenly put forth, there must be no doubt about it at all.

After the Fenerbahçe-Galatasaray Super Cup final in Riyadh was turned into a crisis with extraordinary effort, the news of its reaching the final without being played dropping like a bomb on the agenda could not have been an unexpected outcome. It is very clear that this score was obtained through a very well-worked organization. That everyone who led to this situation should be the subject of a serious investigation in fact requires a national security approach.

The outcome could not have been unpredictable when the FB and GS football clubs, having applied to Riyadh themselves and agreed to play according to the rules, put forward new and unacceptable demands within the last hour of the match. In this way we have all memorized all the rules on this subject. Such a move contrary to a contract made in advance according to the rules cannot be made, and in any case no other demand can be made within the last hour. It is impossible that those who run these clubs do not know this. Even so, making unacceptable demands means nothing other than knowingly volunteering to produce a crisis.

Reducing and dramatizing the incident into something like "an objection to or attack on Atatürk" reveals precisely the intention and value of using Atatürk in this kind of operations. In the contract made in advance with Saudi Arabia, precisely in line with the calendar, there is no excess or deficiency regarding the presentation of Atatürk, the Republic or the Turkish flag during the match. No objection was made to anything the clubs wanted to put into the contract. It was even planned and accepted that a special ceremony on the 100th Anniversary of the Republic of Turkey would be held before the match at the stadium where the match would be played. Just as the 100th Year March would even be performed before the match with the participation of many artists, a choreography in which a Turkish flag, an Atatürk poster and the clubs' emblems would be unfurled by a team of 100 was also placed in the program and included in the contract, and this too was accepted by the Saudi authorities without any objection.

The Saudis have no problem, no trouble whatsoever with Atatürk. Indeed, with the opening-up policies lately being implemented in the country, it would not be an exaggeration at all to say that they are following in Atatürk's footsteps. To say that the posters were rejected on the grounds of being contrary to Saudi creed is great nonsense in this picture. Saudi Arabia's present line in these matters is far beyond secularism. The recent investments in the entertainment sector and the policies of moving away from the traditional Islamic line are even interpreted as its adopting Kemalism as a source of inspiration.

Therefore the only problem is the demands that came within the last hour. These are demands not in the contract, and the host country objected to them by reminding of FIFA's clear rules. This objection was turned by ours into an insurmountable crisis and the well-known result was obtained. Undoubtedly this is a result that can only be obtained through hard work.

A dimension of the incident that must not be overlooked is how it can be thought that a person who is also the head of Turkey's largest industrial and business group did not know what the result of putting forward such an impossible demand in football would be. Businessman means, first of all, rationality and, owing to mastery in negotiation and bargaining, a high degree of empathy. If Ali Koç tried to run his own companies with the mind with which he managed this crisis, how long a life could be allotted to the Koç group?

A second dimension is that of the two sayings said to have caused the problem, one is "Ne Mutlu Türküm Diyene" and the other "Yurtta Sulh Cihanda Sulh." Regarding the first I would say let us just think about it, but the second, though it demands peace at home and peace in the world, is also the slogan chosen by the coup plotters on 15 July who wanted to stuff grass into the peace, the stability, the very life of the country. Now, to start a fight by putting forward this saying that demands peace, that exalts peace, or to put forward this saying in order to start a fight... If nothing else, this gap between word and action is a tragic image of how slogans have been emptied out and rendered inappropriate.

Let us end by repeating that the really important dimension of the incident is that the excellent unifying atmosphere formed in the whole world and in Turkey because of Gaza has been assassinated. Let us again, against this assassination, not let our attention stray from Gaza, nor let it be diverted. Let our heart be Gaza.

TODAY at 08.30 in the morning, after the morning prayer, let us meet for Gaza on the Galata bridge. Let our heart be Gaza. Let us not forget Gaza, let us not give an opportunity to those who try to make it forgotten.