Turkish Police head’s loyalty display: A state within state?

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli’s recent visit to the Police Special Operations Department (PÖH) on July 15 was an evidence that the Turkish government has not learned anything from the July 15 2016 coup attempt.

The reason lies behind a scene where Süleyman Karadeniz, Head of the Police Special Operations, welcomed Bahçeli at the Headquarters in capital Ankara’s suburb Gölbaşı by kissing his hand. There is no need to explain that the gesture has no place in official protocol and is a high-level expression of respect and subdominance.

PÖH Headquarters is the site where on the night of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt Gülenist pilots bombed with warplanes and helicopters affiliated with the Turkish Armed Forces killing 51 police officers.

The person who expressed his political idologocal loyalty to a political party leader in the most explicit and traditional manner was the person who leads the police special forces which had become the target of an organization, members of which are more loyal to their political-ideological leaders than their administrative superiors.

Karadeniz’s superior, General Director of Security Erol Ayyıldız, was standing right behind Bahçeli, observing the situation with content. This photograph has undoubtedly been brought to the attention of Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, who is the superior of both.

Is Süleyman Karadeniz more loyal to his superiors in the Turkish Republic state or to MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli? Or, more dangerously, does he see his loyalty to Bahçeli as synonymous with loyalty to the state?

Whose loyalty? A state within a state

It was unfortunately proven on July 15, 2016, that Gulenists, followers of US-based self acclaimed cleric Fethullah Gülen, were more loyal to the imams appointed by Gülen than to their own commanders within the Turkish Armed Forces.

MHP members have always had a significant presence in public offices. However, this situation began to evolve into a “state within a state” in two stages.

The first stage was after the July 15, 2016, coup attempt when Bahçeli decided to stop opposing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) and chose to support them in power. Erdoğan accepted this support.

The second stage was the purge of Gülenists from the judiciary, administration, and security structures after the coup attempt. MHP members, along with other religious community structures, but in much more influential positions than them, took their place.

If there is a difference between this situation and “parallel state structure” used for the one-time so-called allies of the AKP, now referred to as “FETÖ” (Fethullahist Terrorist Organization), it needs to be explained.

Opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel reacted the picture harshly.

“You have misunderstood what it means to be the state’s police office. You have clung to the wrong state,” he said addressing to Karadeniz. What he meant by “wrong state” was a referance to Devlet Bahçeli’s name, which means “state” in Turkish.

“We accept showing respect to politicians but how that politician receives it, what they allow and to what extend is their own preference. We respect these choices however, never accept individuals who are paid by this state who are supposed to serve the entirely to this nation, and who are in uniform and authority, bowing down and kissing the hand of a smally part of this country’s political representation,” he said.

Significant timing

PÖH Head, First Class Security Director Süleyman Karadeniz’s demonstration of respect and loyalty to Devlet Bahçeli by kissing his hand coincided with several developments.

Firstly, the MHP has shown its power on the People’s Alliance, a coalition led by the ruling AKP, and Bahçeli’s influence over President Erdoğan in the Sinan Ateş murder case. The Sinan Ateş case involved the assassination of a prominent figure, and it highlighted the political maneuvering within the coalition. It’s not just the Sinan Ateş case; police officers conducting the operation against the Ayhan Bora Kaplan gang, in which former Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu was also implicated, found themselves under investigation.

Secondly, Ahmet Davutoğlu, a former Foreign Minister and Prime Minister, now leader of the Future Party, warned Erdoğan against “personal” dangers in an interview with journalist Murat Sabuncu on T24, mentioning “structures within the state that consider themselves stronger than the state.”

Thirdly, Zafer Party leader Ümit Özdağ, in his interview with Cansu Çamlıbel on T24, claimed that the file held by Bahçeli in a photo perceived as a turning point in the Sinan Ateş discussions contained information about the “dark relationships of the AKP” and was given to Bahçeli by a “former AKP minister.”

Chain of coincidences

Aren’t these coincidences too many to be ignored?

Both Davutoğlu and Özdağ are politicians who can still receive information from within the state structure.

Labeling their claims as “FETÖ manipulation” and trying to suppress them, just like we still question the events of July 15, 2016, is easy. Media dominance fed by public tenders also provides a basis for this suppression.

At a time when these coincidences overlap, Bahçeli having the PÖH head kiss his hand is a display of power. Erdoğan, a shrewd politician, is not someone who would miss or misread this.

The remaining possibility is that there is a movement within the political corridors of Ankara, especially within the People’s Alliance, that political journalists have not yet fully deciphered.

Once, Gulenists who came to Erdoğan saying “We prevented an assassination attempt” or “We cleansed Kemalists from the state,” were defended by him because it suited him at the time. After the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, he said, “I was deceived, may God forgive me.”

Maybe there is currently another movement within the state, and MHP members are seen as the antidote to it. We cannot fully see it because the system is not transparent.

A period of hand-kissing?

I fear that the act of PÖH Head Karadeniz kissing a political party leader’s hand might start a period of hand-kissing within the state.

Erdoğan has always said that this is only acceptable for family elders and teachers.

However, if a frenzy of hand-kissing to get noticed and rewarded starts within the bureaucracy, and this pleases the managers who are hungry for praise, it will further disrupt the discipline in the already decaying state functioning, making it more prone to infiltration and exploitation. If who has power and who has authority becomes intertwined, it will open another door to every evil, including new coup attempts like July 15, 2016.

If Interior Minister Yerlikaya and President Erdoğan do not voice their concern over this picture, I fear that the public will suffer the consequences again.