Cropped Videos and Distorted Statements
The Claim that He "Supported America in the Afrin Operation"
Distorted
Claim
Fact
The speech was made on Friday 19 January 2018, that is, before the Afrin operation had begun; the operation began the following day, on 20 January 2018. Eleven days later, on 30 January 2018, the operation against the Furkan Foundation took place, and Alparslan Kuytul was arrested on 8 February 2018. Everything discussed below belongs entirely to this period.
The video put into circulation is a single sentence taken from a twelve-minute assessment. The speech as a whole says the opposite of the meaning laid on it: not support for America, but a warning against America's intentions.
"For one thing, America will certainly give intelligence support to the PYD. ... America will provide every kind of intelligence, by unmanned aerial vehicles and by other means. In order to drag Turkey into a quagmire there."
"They may well be drawing Turkey into a trap."
He also describes the weapons being carried openly in front of the cameras as "provoking Turkey". The gist of his warning is this: going in is easy, coming out is hard; America went into Iraq and into Afghanistan and could not get out for years.
His stance after the operation began is equally plain. His answer to a question put to him on the seventh day begins with a prayer: "First of all I ask God's mercy for our martyrs. Martyrdom is an honour for those who struggle in the way of God."
Why is this labelled "Distorted"?
The one thing that is true is that the speech really was made — the recording is not a fake. What has been distorted is what the sentence was uttered for.
A warning that recalls America's power and its calculations has been presented as support for America. Anyone who listens to the whole recording can see the difference between giving notice of a danger and standing on the side of that danger.
The order of dates, first
Everything discussed under this heading belongs to the winter of 2018, and the order is as follows:
- Friday 19 January 2018 — Kuytul's twelve-minute assessment. The operation has not yet begun.
- 20 January 2018 — the Afrin operation begins.
- 30 January 2018 — the operation against the Furkan Foundation.
- 8 February 2018 — Alparslan Kuytul is arrested.
The order matters for this reason: the speech is not an "objection" to the operation but an assessment made in anticipation of a possible operation. An operation that has not begun cannot be objected to; what was being discussed on that date was what America's preparations in the region meant for Turkey.
The sentence that was cut, and the speech that was not
The video that spread is a single sentence taken out of twelve minutes. Once what comes before and after the sentence is removed, what remains is an excerpt that appears to speak favourably of America. Yet throughout the speech, the frame within which America is spoken of is that of a threat.
The reason this method works is simple: to describe a danger, one has to describe the strength of that danger. Sentences setting out what America is capable of, taken out of their context, resemble sentences praising America. The excerpt is built on exactly that resemblance.
"Did America do this without guessing what Turkey would do? Right in front of everyone's eyes, the lorries go past in front of the cameras. ... Armoured vehicles on them, anti-aircraft guns... Openly, for all to see... This is provoking Turkey."
What the warning said
Kuytul says three things. First, that America will give intelligence to the PYD and that this will be decisive in the fighting. Second, that the aim of this is to draw Turkey into a quagmire. Third, that with operations of this kind going in and coming out are not the same thing:
"There is the going in, and then there is the coming out. You go in, but you cannot come out. America went into Iraq and could not get out for years; it went into Afghanistan and could not get out. Russia went into Afghanistan and could not get out."
The place where he voices his fear is plain too: "If America has now given them 4,900 lorryloads of weapons, I do not know how many thousands of our soldiers we will lose there. God forbid." The sum of these sentences is not support but the fear of loss.
What did he say after the operation began?
On the seventh day of the operation, asked about developments, the first sentence of his answer is a prayer for the martyrs: "First of all I ask God's mercy for our martyrs. Martyrdom is an honour for those who struggle in the way of God." This is the sentence formed, while the operation was under way, by the man said to have supported America.
And there is this: the claim that the speech entered the case file
The source text says that this assessment, made in good faith, became a ground for arrest. We do not have an indictment or an arrest decision that confirms this; we therefore report it here not as a settled finding but as the source's own statement. When the document appears, this section will be tied to the document.
What is left?
There are two things in hand: the whole of a twelve-minute recording, and a few seconds cut out of it. In the whole recording America is not an ally but a party making its own calculations; the real anxiety is that Turkey will be drawn into a long war. The claim, meanwhile, can stand only on the excerpt — the moment the recording is played, it falls.
Another example of the same method: the claim that "he called the people who took to the streets on 15 July murderers" — there too, what was cut out was a distinction made within the speech.