The 3rd Airport despite Gezi and 17 December

Yesterday, with a magnificent groundbreaking ceremony, construction began on one of the largest projects in the history of the Republic of Turkey, the 3rd Airport in Istanbul. We know that this project, together with the 3rd Bridge, Kanal Istanbul and the high-speed train for Istanbul, was the magnificent initiative that triggered the Gezi protests against the government around this time last year. There were of course those who took part in the Gezi protests who found in those actions, by their own lights, entirely different reasons and settings, causes and excitements, revolution reveries and breezes of Prague springs. But the premium the whole world gave to these protests had, to a great extent, no aim other than blocking the path of these projects, which will change Turkey's destiny.

Indeed, since the Prime Minister was not in Turkey in those days, the demands of the protesters' representatives who met with Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Bülent Arınç spilled the beans.

The demands were precisely the halting of all these projects. The secret that the issue was not the tree had been exposed by the activists at the start of the events from the very beginning.

The fetish value loaded onto a tree turning, in a short time, toward other things to the point of consuming that very tree is the unchanging fate of fetishism. We also saw how those who set out over a tree came to wish for the deaths of people from among their own. The ulterior motive of "if only a few deaths occurred, how quickly we would advance toward revolution" was also exposed by God's rod, as a lesson.

On one occasion I pointed to the fetish meaning and value attributed to the tree at Gezi. Is fetishism not exactly this?

Idol worshippers never think that the idol created them or has extraordinary powers anyway. What matters is the fetishism in the meaning and value attributed to the idol, and that meaning quickly drifts far from the reason for setting out anyway. The issue suddenly ceases to be He Himself. What remains is the sanctity attributed to it and fixed upon it, but the issue turns into something else.

The tree issue suddenly becomes the 3rd Airport, becomes the 3rd Bosphorus Bridge, becomes Kanal Istanbul.

If there is any concern about these, as in all idolatries, it is the concern of those who put the idol forward. The idol has no power to give benefit or harm, good or evil. What needs to be looked at is what interests those who put the idol forward establish and sustain with it. How did a tree issue quickly turn into an effort to obstruct these mega projects?

The Gezi people, and especially those who try to produce lofty socialist-leaning revolution theories out of this Gezi affair, if there are any, now need to put their hats in front of them and think, but I fear they are far from grasping all the dimensions of what has happened.

With the Gezi affair, they continue to enjoy the taste of the revolution honey the big bourgeoisie smeared on their mouths. Let them.

IN RUSSIA GÜLEN, IN GERMANY KILIÇDAROĞLU

On Saturday, while the Prime Minister of Turkey was performing this opening, which the whole world watched with admiration, envy or jealousy, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on his trip to Germany was talking about the media in Turkey not being free and the number of jailed journalists reaching 105 as of one year ago.

A day earlier, Fethullah Gülen, in a message read at a meeting titled "Media bridge between Asia and Europe" organized by the Journalists and Writers Foundation with Rus Medya Soyuz at the State Social Sciences University in Russia, was stating that "it is sad that 29 journalists in Turkey are still in prison" and that "self-censorship arising from the pressure of bosses or the political authority is the imprisonment of conscience."

I have touched on the issue of jailed journalists before, many others have too, and the Ministry of Justice has repeatedly made statements about the reality of the matter.

The truth is that at present there is no one under arrest because of journalistic activity. The figures given are entirely fabricated. Even if there are those said to be under arrest, either they are not under arrest as of today, or they were never journalists, or none of their offenses falls within the scope of journalism.

In fact, there is no statistic of arrests by people's professions. Even if a statistic of jailed professors were kept, many people could turn up under it, but it would be seen that they are under arrest not for their professorial activities but, for example, for murders, rapes or abuse of office. There is no need for different treatment for journalists.

In fact, even if you ask the French, German or British ministry of justice a question about journalists in prisons, the answer you will get will be this, so no such statistic is ever produced there.

In our case, the one who continues to slander Turkey in Russia with data that has been established as fabricated regarding jailed journalists is Fethullah Gülen, and in Germany it is Kılıçdaroğlu.

Well, there can be one category: some who cannot be arrested for journalistic activity can be thrown inside on indirect charges. And there are two currently valid examples of this: One is Salih Mirzabeyoğlu, who was jailed in the February 28 period, which the CHP owns, and is still in prison.

The second is Hanefi Avcı, who suddenly found himself a leftist organization leader because of the book he wrote about the Gülen community and is still in prison. That Avcı, who spent his entire life as a typical rightist, was tried and imprisoned as the leader of an extreme leftist organization is just like an intimidation.

Meanwhile, no one can keep up counting the number of lawsuits filed by Gülen, who says he is so saddened by the non-existent "jailed journalists" and the absence of freedom of expression, and who regards the slightest criticism as an insult.

No, let him file whatever lawsuit he wants, but for him to exert so much lawsuit pressure on journalists and then talk about self-censorship, pressure on freedom of expression and so on is, to put it politely, not at all credible.