The government’s star witness in coup trials in Turkey has turned out to be a staunchly anti-Semitic, anti-Christian figure who claimed that Turkey had been ruled by evil powers, namely the United States, Israel and the West.
Çetin Acar, a man who was spouting hatred toward non-Muslims and minorities, has been put forward by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as an expert in coup trials. According to a 200-page, conspiracy-laden report that was written by this man, a copy of which was obtained by Nordic Monitor, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government apparently aimed to fan xenophobia in Turkey, stigmatize minorities and stoke anti-Western sentiment by entertaining his far-fetched claims in a court of law.
Acar’s report, which is full of unsubstantiated claims, conspiracies, lies and fabrications, was treated by prosecutors as an expert opinion and incorporated into investigation case files concerning a failed coup attempt in July 2016. Moreover, he has been called as a witness for the prosecution in high-profile trials. The allegations found in the report lack evidence, are based on rumors and hearsay and often have an anti-Semitic slant.
Borrowing the narrative of Turkish President Erdoğan, Acar introduced his report by saying that the Turkish president’s “Higher Mind” (Üst Akıl in Turkish) is synonymous with his own term “Higher Structure” (Üst Yapi in Turkish), which he claimed holds the real power in the Turkish capital of Ankara. This higher entity established and promoted the Gülen movement, a civic group that is active in education and interfaith dialogue activities, Acar argued. He described this higher structure as both a Zionist and a Crusader organization that is directly controlled by a world Zionist center based in Washington. By extension, the Gülen movement is also a Zionist and Crusader entity, Acar wrote in his report, which was submitted to Turkish prosecutor Kemal Aksakal on February 14, 2017 and subsequently became part of investigation case file No. 2016/ 103566.
The Americans had maintained a presence in Ottoman lands since the 1800s and took over control of Turkey from the British in the aftermath of World War II, Acar claimed in his report, adding that Jews and their blood brothers the Sabataycılar (crypto Jews, or a secret Jewish community that follows Sabbatai Sevi and pretends to be Muslim), other minorities and some Muslim collaborators have been waiting to take on an assignment from the United States. Most of these Jews and crypto Jews are businesspeople who are enemies of Muslims and Turks, according to this conspiracy spinning, so-called expert.
“Jews and Zionists, who are the number one enemy of the Islamic world and Turks, were made to be forgotten and camouflaged under the pretext of the Iranian, or Persian, threat,” Acar wrote in the report. Israel and the West lost its major ally when Mohammad Reza Shah, the last shah of Iran, was toppled, and now they want to use US-based Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen in order to pit Sunni Turkey against Shiite Iran, he noted, stressing that the Gülen movement has been staunchly anti-Iran judging from the editorial line of its affiliated media.
According to this conspiracy theorist, Jews took over the Ottoman palace, while crypto Jews controlled the state’s finance, executive, judiciary and military branches. After destroying the Ottoman Empire, Jews founded Turkey to ensure the security of Israel, which was to be established later, he noted. Just like Jews, the Gülen movement also tried to infiltrate the army and state bureaucracy, Acar concluded, accusing the Jews and Americans of being behind the failed coup attempt in 2016 as well as all terrorist organizations including the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Scapegoating Jews for all the major problems in Turkey, Acar tried to whitewash the Erdoğan government’s failures in governance and absolve it from any responsibility or accountability.
He continues to appear in the pro-government media spewing the same hatred and conspiracy theories in his books and court statements. The fact that Turkish prosecutors took this conspiracy theorist as serious, accepted his report full of hate speech and baseless allegations as part of the evidentiary file and allowed him to testify against government critics who were persecuted by the Erdoğan regime tells the tale of today’s Turkey.
