Obstruction of Conferences and Pressure
Was the İskenderun conference really cancelled on "security" grounds?
Distorted
Claim
Fact
İskenderun, Sunday 29 May 2016. The conference on The Conquest of Istanbul and the Generation of Conquest, which the Furkan Foundation was to hold at the İsa Taş Plaza Wedding Hall, was cancelled by the district governorate on the grounds that security could not be provided. This page deals only with that decision.
Permission had been granted earlier: the foundation applied to the district governorate on 11 May 2016, the application was accepted and permission for the conference was issued. Following this, tens of thousands of leaflets and posters were printed.
What happened after the permission does not fit the grounds given for the decision:
- the printed posters were confiscated,
- attempts were made to persuade the owners of the hall to give up the conference,
- sponsors were pressured.
What an administration that genuinely has security concerns does is well known: it assigns additional forces, regulates entry and exit, sets up a search point and, if need be, proposes a change of time or of hall. It does not confiscate posters, does not try to deter the owner of the hall, does not approach sponsors. The three things listed are directed not at protecting the hall, but at making sure the program is never heard of at all.
The end of that same day showed this once more. The Hatay Governorate permitted a press statement to be made at İstasyon Square in central İskenderun; the statement, attended by more than ten thousand people, went ahead accompanied by the police and ended without incident. In a city where security was said to be impossible to provide for a conference in an enclosed hall, a far more crowded program in the open air could be held on the same day, together with security.
Why this label, "Distorted"?
There is no invented decision: the cancellation really was issued, and its grounds really were security. What is distorted is what those grounds describe. Granting permission first and then withdrawing it, confiscating the posters and approaching the sponsors are not the steps of a security plan. What was done is not a precaution but an obstruction.
Permission was granted first
The Furkan Foundation applied to the district governorate on 11 May 2016 to hold a conference at the İsa Taş Plaza Wedding Hall in İskenderun on Sunday 29 May 2016. The application was accepted and permission for the conference was granted. The subject was the conquest of Istanbul and the qualities of the generation of conquest.
After the permission, members of the foundation began to announce the program to the public, printing tens of thousands of leaflets and posters. Up to this point everything proceeded by the book: there is an application, there is a permission, there is an announcement.
Three separate moves after the permission
Once the announcement began, the picture changed. The source recounts all three together:
- The posters were confiscated. The notices of a program resting on a lawful permission were treated as though they were the notices of an unauthorised activity.
- Attempts were made to deter the owners of the hall. The owners of the wedding hall, with whom a contract had been signed, were to be persuaded to give up the conference.
- Sponsors were pressured. Those who supported the program were met with threats.
What these three acts have in common is this: not one of them concerns the security of the hall or of those attending. All three are directed at making the program impossible to hold.
The grounds do not hold together
If an administration is genuinely worried about security, the instruments at its disposal are well known, and all of them are directed at keeping the program alive: assigning additional forces, setting up an entry and exit system and a search point, offering to change the time or to propose a more suitable hall. In the last resort, it is also possible to postpone a meeting for a certain period.
None of these instruments was used. The method used was to target the poster, the hall and the sponsor — that is, to do away not with security, but with the announcement and the means. The foundation thereupon announced that it was taking on its own security and decided to hold the program.
The same day, the same city, a far more crowded program
The clearest test of the grounds came at the end of the day. After a long chain of obstruction and intervention, the Hatay Governorate permitted a press statement to be made at İstasyon Square in central İskenderun. More than ten thousand people entered the square accompanied by the police, and the statement ended without incident.
The difference in scale matters: in a city where security was said to be impossible to provide for a conference to be held in an enclosed wedding hall, a program of more than ten thousand people in the open air could be held on the same day, together with security measures. If security really could not be provided, the second would have been far harder than the first.
İskenderun is not a single case
Alparslan Kuytul issued a statement on 27 May 2016; alongside İskenderun, the statement also dealt with the obstruction in Maraş. That is, the same outcome had come about in two separate cities in the same days. This shows that the decision was not a security assessment particular to that hall or that day.
Conclusion
There is a decision, its grounds are in writing, and these are not in dispute. What is in dispute is whether the grounds explain the event. If, within the same week, an administration first grants permission and then cancels it, confiscates the posters, tries to deter the owner of the hall, approaches the sponsor, and finally is able to run a far more crowded program together with security on the same day, then the name of the act in question is not a security measure.
The rest of that same day is covered under a separate heading: the claim that "the Furkan Foundation closed the motorway". All the dates on this page belong to the year 2016; they have nothing to do with the case opened by the operation of 30 January 2018.