Obama’s difference!

As columnists, especially pro-government or Islamist colleagues, were getting caught up by Obama-mania, I was writing, "Only the waiter changed, not the kitchen." But, I added, "The way he serves makes a difference, though."

Here is the difference: the difference that the new waiter has made without changing anything in the kitchen!

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Obama wants to withdraw U.S. troops from the region by turning Iraq over to safe hands and not jeopardizing its hegemony over Iraqi oil and natural gas that they confiscated in a difficult and nonsensical war.

In the meantime, we experience "coup-mania" in Turkey in a period where we have never been so close to a zero coup possibility!

After April 27, when I said, "This is a coup," during an NTV program, columnists excitedly refused the term and said "[Chief of General Staff] Büyükanıt doesn’t even know this." Now, the coup possibility is so far away that these same columnists are now bullying the present Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ!

Since he is not afraid, there is no coup possibility in the air!

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What is happening, then?

The United States is having a different ally in Turkey!

1) Obama is leaving the Greater Middle Eastern project behind; therefore, the term "Moderate Islam" is falling into disuse.

2) Therefore, the new U.S. administration does not need the Fethullah Gülen movement anymore. Even more so, it is a necessity to approach the Turkish Armed Forces, or TSK, as a possible new ally and to alienate the Gülen movement!

3) In fact, the Gülen movement, despite all its efforts in 2003 to 2009, has already shown that it has no influence over Kurds in southeastern Turkey and in northern Iraq. The results of the March 29 local polls are self-evident.

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Obama, in the new period, needs an ally that will protect northern Iraq against other elements in Iraq if necessary and will assist U.S. troops in leaving Iraq. A possible ally is the TSK! If the TSK and the Turkish government work together in peace, the United States will be delighted. In fact, didn’t President Gül announce, "For the first time, two institutions, the TSK and the government, are thinking alike," and termed this as an "historic opportunity" for the resolution of the Kurdish issue?

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At a time when the fear of a coup is almost zero, why is a "piece of paper" causing a big stir?

After the March 29 local elections, officials are engaged in heavy works. That’s why! And that’s why the document is appropriated with the date "April 2009"!

Two possibilities about the document are coming toward the same thing:

1) We saw during the airborne attacks to the north that the TSK included any type of individuals, even if they are minorities! They have served until recently.

2) The Gülen movement is so expanded now that to orchestrate it from a single center is impossible.

I am of the opinion that whether or not the document is original, it was not prepared by the central will of both sides!

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I think we will never learn if it is genuine or not. The document served its purpose. The ball is in the government’s court and it fulfilled its function!

Now, it is the government’s decision!

The Justice and Development Party, or AKP, will either go its separate ways with the Gülen movement, its close ally since 2003, but even more closely since the July 22 elections, and will benefit from this "historic opportunity" with the TSK, orÉ

To be continued tomorrow...