The School of Politics Hosts Journalists

The fifth week of the 8th School of Politics program organized by the Bahçeşehir University School of Government and Leadership featured Sabah newspaper columnist Mahmut Övür, CNN Türk News Editor-in-Chief Ferhat Boratav, Kanal 24 Editor-in-Chief Akif Beki, Akşam newspaper columnist Dr. Hüsnü Mahalli, and Middle East expert Dr. Abdullah Manaz, and the topics of media and politics, democratization, confronting the past, the Arab Spring and Türkiye's role were discussed.

Highlights from the program are as follows:

MAHMUT ÖVÜR:

"During the single-party period, an attempt was made to create a uniform society. This prevented the Turkish people from meeting democracy. Today, the early years of the Republic must be examined with their good and bad sides; we have to confront our history. They say don't scratch the wound, don't open up the past, but if a wound starts to itch, it means it is healing. However, as democracy develops and we confront the past, we must not approach it through hatred. We need to create a new language of social dialogue and a new language of politics. If politics can build a good bridge between the past and the future, the foundations of a new Türkiye will be laid. The constitution issue is also a way of putting confronting history into practice."

FERHAT BORATAV:

"Journalism is an iconic profession that is immediately recognized, or thought to be recognized. This leads to the idea that everyone can express an opinion about journalism. Journalism is partly a matter of waiting, and it involves long-term relationships. Trust is the basis of this mutual relationship. Today, advances in technology and the internet have created competitors for journalists and newspapers. This competitor shows that the model established between politicians and the media is coming to an end. We are currently going through a period in Türkiye that we are not used to; we lived with coalition governments for years, and it is harder to do journalism under single-party rule."

AKİF BEKİ:

"Press–government relations did not break down later; they were broken from the beginning and remain so. Those who engage in battles of the pen, whatever side they stand on, are entangled in politics and are concerned with doing politics. If the media had not lost its fighting spirit and had not emerged from a very bruising struggle, there are political structures in the Turkish media that would step outside journalistic activity today. Türkiye has gone through an important democratization process, and this was done despite the media. By accusing the other side of being 'partisan media,' they are also criticizing their journalism."

HÜSNÜ MAHALLİ:

"There is no spring in Libya; NATO has occupied it, and all of this was planned a very long time ago. Identity-based and religious wars have been structured deliberately and over the long term; we must always approach news from Western sources critically. It is a contradiction that Saudi Arabia, a country where even a young woman's freedom to go out on the street is restricted, and Qatar are allies of America on democracy. We see that the West does not actually care about the existence of democracy in these lands."

ABDULLAH MANAZ:

"To understand the events in the Middle East, one must understand the past well. The two most important factors to focus on here are colonialism and oil. Although oil was initially used as fuel, with its intensive use in industry it came to be sought all over the world. The Arab Spring is a NATO operation. After Syria, the next target is Iran. For the West, it does not matter what kind of Muslims they are. What matters is that they get along well with the West. British and American policy in the Middle East is to carry oil to the West by bypassing Russia and continental Europe."