Really, whom would the Hodjaefendi tolerate?

I have been writing and speaking for years. I comment on what is happening in world affairs as far as my mind reaches. Knowing that I remain within the mortal limits of this mind God has given, I try, within those limits only, to make sense of and explain what I have witnessed, as best my tongue allows. In doing so, there are many people whose actions I have found wrong and criticized, and others whose actions I have found right and affirmed. But so far I have never insulted anyone, and I have never even thought of hurting anyone in particular on account of what I have witnessed.

Of course, the painful effect of truths must never be overlooked. For most people, merely speaking the truths themselves is painful enough. But God, to whom I would give my life, grants His sincere servants the strength to face these truths and bear this bitterness.

Perhaps because I never intended to hurt anyone, although I have criticized so many people and come face to face with so many, until now I have never been the subject of a lawsuit over what I wrote or said. That, too, was in my lot, it seems. The first lawsuit was to be filed against me by Fethullah Gülen.

I said, did I not, that the December 17 process was a coup attempt and that this process was proceeding entirely under the initiative and control of the community, and therefore that the Hocaefendi himself was directing this process! And I called that "curse" of his, which has by now become the talk of the whole world, a "malediction"! The Hocaefendi was deeply offended by these two matters, was greatly distressed, and, considering that these claims caused him a material loss of 50 thousand liras, has sued me through his lawyer to have this loss compensated.

The undisputed foremost name of the rhetoric of tolerance in Turkey does not tolerate us. Whom, indeed, was the Hocaefendi going to tolerate? The man from whom I heard countless times the advice "even if you are hurt, do not hurt" says that he was immediately hurt by the mildest critical expressions I had ever resorted to, and in return immediately sets out to hurt (really, whom was the Hocaefendi not going to hurt?):

To hurt, he wants "a mere 50 thousand liras." His attorney explains at length that this is not an exorbitant figure.

Well, of course we still call money money; we do not call it pineapple. So, to tell the truth, never mind being made the subject of a lawsuit over a comment of mine, which is my most natural right of freedom of expression, even if we had deserved it, 50 thousand liras seemed far too exorbitant to me. As for it, if they imagine otherwise, let all the shoe boxes in my house, together with their contents, be theirs.

Amid all this work, we are now going to go to court and answer for ordinary comments made on the basis of facts that have become common knowledge. We will say: look, Hocaefendi, whomever you stop on the street will tell you that magnificent performance was a curse. If you very much want it to be understood not as a curse but as a malediction, good luck: people understood it not that way but this way, and have long since paid the price for it.

Besides, even if it were a malediction, there is an addressee, a target, enthroned at the seat of that anger, that excessive excitement, and everyone knew that addressee and target as such. At this hour, even if you get the compensation you demand from me, you cannot change the perception on this matter, mark it. It is easy to voice tolerance and dialogue with exaggerated rhetoric when there is no need, but that performance has already confronted you with all that rhetoric as the seizure of a heavy debt in compounded form.

Moreover, the data showing that the December 17 process is a coup and that the hocaefendi is a party to this coup has also ceased to need proof and has become public. The prosecutors' intention and goal are evident. What is aimed at with the timed operations of investigations launched and conducted entirely irregularly is evident. With both Fethullah Gülen and all the media subordinate to him fanatically supporting such irregular cases, it is you who now must thoroughly try to prove that you have nothing to do with this coup and explain what has happened. That is, if anything is left to explain. With everything as clear as day, what will you explain?

Meanwhile, I have learned that the lawsuit against me was not filed against me alone. Lawsuits have been filed against many people like me over comments they made on television or in newspapers.

What kind of intimidation campaign is this? Have we not read, for nearly two years, a great deal in the community media about the prime minister's extreme intolerance, impatience, closedness to different ideas and thoughts, even dictatorship? We read these things, we listened, we kept quiet; when it was most needed we said that we found them wrong and unfair. We, too, criticized those who said them. When the occasion arose we criticized the Prime Minister too. When we think he has done wrong, we will continue to criticize. Nothing could be more natural than that.

Yet it turns out we did not know that there was a secret protection law concerning the Hocaefendi. Until now this law somehow operated and kept everyone from criticizing him on their own. But by being thrown into the middle of the latest debates, the Hoca has brought down this wall of protection around himself with his own hands. This time it appears he has begun to intimidate those who direct criticism at him through lawsuits. He has begun filing exorbitant compensation suits against our initial assessments of him, which contained no insult whatsoever and fell entirely within the right of expression regarding his own activities and discourse.

Again, get well soon, dear hocaefendi! There is no longer any possibility of escaping being a subject of debate and criticism by these means either. If you have become an active actor in politics, in the business world, in so many intricate affairs going on in Turkey, you will have to accept being criticized and being assessed one way or another. You will do every kind of politics, take your side in every fight in the harshest manner, be in the most controversial positions, and yet also be exempt from criticism. I would not have liked to be forced to remind you, but the world does not consist of disciples. There is no such free world.

I keep saying, whom was the Hocaefendi going to tolerate? Let it not be misunderstood, I am not expecting tolerance. I have in any case written many times about how invalid and how unreciprocated the rhetoric of tolerance is. It is enough for me that what I said has been verified. Though of course I am not happy about it.