I am watching my step

The warning came from high above.
Numan Kurtulmuş, who as general chair of the HAS party set up to rival the AKP directed very harsh and very well-placed criticism at Tayyip Erdoğan and his party and then suddenly left his colleagues in the HAS party in the lurch and ‘transferred’ to the AKP to be rewarded with the post of deputy prime-minister, was replying to journalists’ questions as government spokesman and, having taken a question from my office neighbour, Cumhuriyet’s young and hard-working Sinan Tartanoğlu, over the continuing lack of a comment by the government on the two soldiers ISIL burnt alive, said, ‘There is as yet no confirmed information regarding this video footage. If there were, we would make this public,’ and added:
‘Certain of our media friends should please watch their steps.’
I consider the use of ‘please’ in conjunction with ‘watch your step’ to be a contribution to the annals of oxymorons. It ranks alongside addressing somebody as ‘Oi madam’ or an utterance such as ‘I convey my respect to you, low life’ or even a legal aberration such as the detention of my friend Profesör İştar Gözaydın, to whom the European Court of Human Rights frequently makes recourse for opinions and assessments, on charges of ‘membership of a terrorist organisation’.
However, I am also well aware of the danger inherent in such comparisons in these days in which charges of, ‘You had the temerity not to watch your step, huh?’ are doing the rounds. So, I am watching my step. For example, I must not mention the parliamentary question that HDP Mardin MP Ali Ataman submitted for reply by the Ministry of National Defence. In other words, I must watch my step.
This is because the parliamentary question is a heavyweight question about ten leopard tanks, a cobra helicopter and a large number of armoured vehicles, the number plates of the vehicles in question also cited, belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces and whose fate appears to be something of a mystery in the military operation named Euphrates Shield that is being conducted on another country’s (Syria’s) territory.
A thumping Claw Mark on this subject stalks around inside my head but the step that I must watch prevents this.
Doing similar rounds in my head is a cautionary Claw Mark on the toxic questions engendered in the social media quagmire by the amount of time it is taking the government or Turkish Armed Forces to comment on the video of the soldiers ISIL burnt alive.
Ah, but my step.
As you see, when you watch your step, it ends up about as appetising as gruel.
Is this actually what the government spokesman wants?
I do not know.


***
On a personal note: Those close to me know that ever since Hrant Dink’s murder I have lived under ‘close protection’ from the time I leave the door of my home until I enter that door. That is how I lived. That went on for nine years.
On the morning of 1 November, I was arrested along with twelve of my colleagues in a phase of the plan to silence Cumhuriyet. We were brought before the court five days later. At the conveyor belt to remand known as the Penal Bench of the Peace, ten of my colleagues were remanded in custody.Hikmet Çetinkaya and I were released pending trial on age grounds. On the same day, notification was given of the lifting of the ‘close protection’ measure at the instruction of the Interior Ministry.
Following threats made against me like, ‘This is the last time you will see the sun’ or ‘Your days are numbered,’ ‘close protection’ is once more being provided.
I thank those of my colleagues and readers who made persistent caveats about this and thought I would let them know about this development.