Ertugrul Ozkok: Why all this anger, Mr. Lagendijk?

In the message he told me of his unhappiness over an article published about him in Hurriyet daily newspaper.

The message was written as follows:

"It suggests that I, personally, or the EU, is afraid the AKP wants to take Turkey towards Iran. What I said was that there are people in Turkey who have that fear and the best way for the AKP to show those people they are wrong would be to return to the EU reform agenda."

I was surprised by what he wrote.

That is because, there was absolutely no expression indicating "Lagendijk and the EU is afraid the AKP wants to take Turkey towards Iran," in the article in question.

* * *

The article published in the Hurriyet daily wrote the following:

Lagendijk said, "There are fears in Turkey that the AKP has a secret agenda," and, "The AKP should break the ice and relax the political atmosphere and reveal that they want to lead Turkey to the EU rather than Iran."

Then, I called Lagendijk and asked:

"Have you read the original article completely? There is no phrase that carries the meaning that you refer to. I don’t understand the reason of your reaction."

As I had assumed, he informed me that certain individuals from Turkey had contacted him about the article.

And those who called had conveyed a meaning different from than the original and actual meaning.

Let me reveal what is going on.

Messages regarding "secularism" have started to increase as the closure case against the ruling AKP progresses.

Those who spoke of the closure case being anti-democratic in the past, have now started to use the word "anti" not only in relation to democracy, but also with "secularism."

Voices emanating from the U.S. began this trend and now the EU is slowly beginning to follow suit.

They can not even tolerate statements that suggest, "Some sections of Turkish society have a genuine concern (regarding the AKP’s motivation)," in relation to statements regarding the closure case.