Forcing people to take sides in Turkey

In the post-traumatic atmosphere after the bloody coup attempt of July 15, almost all people in Turkey are being forced to take sides or be labeled "the enemy. " A "yes-or-no" choice is being imposed, like the "You're either with me or against me" remark once made by the former U.S. President George W. Bush.

Take the statement by Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım on Oct. 12. Highlighting criticisms from the main opposition Republican Party (CHP) about careless prosecutions while investigating the coup attempt, Yıldırım accused the CHP leader of giving support to Fethullah Gülen, the U.S.-resident Islamist preacher who the CHP also believes was behind the coup attempt. 

It seems that anyone who mentions possible wrongdoing in the coup attempt probe can be stamped as a Gülenist nowadays. Ankara police sources complained earlier this week that they were fed up with receiving false denunciations in which, for example, an unfaithful spouse or a tenant who has not paid their rent is accused of being a Gülenist. Still, it is a common practice in Turkey at times like this to see false denunciations from members of an accused network trying to muddy the water, distract attention, and dilute investigations. Gülenists may also be part of this.

Meanwhile, if you condemn acts of terror by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has sent jihadist-style suicide bombers into urban areas to kill local politicians, you can easily be labeled a Turkish nationalist or Kurdophobe. Or if you criticize the U.S. - which official PKK documents criticize as a fascist-imperialist hegemon - for supplying arms to the People's Protection Units (YPG), the Syrian extension of the PKK, you can be labeled not only a Turkish nationalist and Kurdophobe, but also a...