Yakup Köse, a staunch supporter of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and a columnist for the pro-government Star daily, on Monday called on the Turkish people and government to “set the West on fire” before it occupies Turkey.
“It is useless to wait for the enemy [to act]. Let’s introduce to fire those who want to set our country on fire. At least, the idea that ‘if you try to come to our county, we can come to you before that’ should be inculcated into both our nation and the West. There are different ways to do this, and people who run the state must know it!..” wrote Köse in his column in the Star daily on Monday, claiming that the West may try to directly occupy Turkey after failing to accomplish it by use of internal actors.
According to Köse, who spent years in jail for allegedly participating in bomb attacks of fundamentalist militant group the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders Front (İBDA/C) before being released in 2015, all the reforms that were made when the Republic of Turkey was established were the installation of degenerate Western values in Anatolia.
“The soul of Anatolia, which they imprisoned in 783,000 square kilometers by saying ‘Peace at home, peace in the world’ [a motto of Turkey’s founder Atatürk] has been breaking its chains. After a century, for the first time the nation and the state show a joint will to break the chains placed by the West. It is this will that panics and frightens the West,” wrote Köse, claiming that the West failed to destroy that will by using the Gülen movement, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and other internal actors.
Claiming that the West has been making final moves after defeats of their efforts through the Gezi Park protests, the PKK resistance in the eastern cities and an “occupation attempt by the coup attempt” on July 15, the columnist said that is the reason why Western countries took sides with naysayers ahead of a critical referendum on April 16.
“The moves that could be considered casus belli such as not allowing top Turkish authorities to enter their countries show how big a panic they have gone into. With this panic, they may attempt to occupy [Turkey] which they have failed doing by means of internal actors,” added Köse, before calling on the Turkish people and the government to “introduce the West to fire” as a preemptive and deterrent measure.