By Engin Ardic
There are reports that Aydin Dogan's press and broadcast organs will be sold. His men have persistently denied these reports but no one believes them.
Mr Dogan has tried to imply that "he is not selling everything" and that "he is looking for partners." Naturally, he does not want to say: "I need cash urgently to pay my tax penalties."
Whether he withdraws from the media world "completely" or tries to hold on to bits of it is not so important. No matter how you look at it, Aydin Dogan is finished.
He may perhaps venture into other businesses and his daughters and sons-in-law may continue his work. Alternately, he may transfer everything to them and retire. His money will be enough for the grandchildren of his grandchildren. Nonetheless, he is finished as a "media tycoon." He no longer serves a "purpose." At present, he is playing on "extension time."
His daughter's "dispatch" (to use a kind word) from TUSIAD [Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association][all brackets as published] was a sign of this reality. Aydin Dogan no longer represents the big bourgeoisie - not even indirectly through his daughter. He can no longer retain its leadership.
He came and he is passing away. I would have like to say "like a shooting star" but his presence and departure have been more like a raging river that overflows its banks and destroys its surroundings.
Mr Dogan waged opposition blindly, very harshly, and even "savagely" for eight years. Some of his men backed this savage opposition and carried his banner because of the "scoundrel" nature of their souls; others did it because they thought they were engaging in leftism or something similar.
However, this was not his sin. After all, opposition is everyone's constitutional right.
Aydin Dogan's sin was "attempting to camouflage his campaign for personal commercial interests with the banner of 'fighting for secularism and Ataturkism.'"
Many were fooled by that.
Mr Dogan was not afraid of mere mortals. Bravo for that. However, he was not afraid of God either. He thought he could cow the government but he could not. He thought he could overthrow it but he could not. He thought he could back others trying to overthrow the government but he could not.
Mr Dogan's men generated endless tensions and strains in Turkey. They played with our psyches.
According to them, Turkey was dead. It was finished, ruined, and about to go under. Yet, realities proved them wrong.
Those who believed the lies they fabricated or were influenced by such lies were astonished with what happened, especially the results of elections and the referendum. Today, in the media, the opposition takes refuge in television stations with small audiences, newspapers that have always sold very few copies, and newly created "lumpen" publishing organs that appeal to lower classes.
This is why the liberal paper you are holding in your hands right now is the new "flagship" of the press. Another new paper is assuming the "spokesmanship of the bureaucracy" while trying to maintain its appearance of impartiality but its circulation volume also remains low. Even the noisy "lumpen" newspaper has surpassed it.
Aydin Dogan did a disservice both to himself and his shops.
His name could have been written in the history of "the growth of bourgeoisie among Anatolian peasants" with golden letters. Instead, he will be remembered as the "provincial merchant."
He failed to become a man and a leader of new Turkey. He chose to become the star of its transition period. His role as a media tycoon will remain a "failure" in his personal life as well as the history of the press. He could understand neither the new century nor the new Turkey. He had aspirations but now he has to pass away.
As John Maynard Keynes once said, "in the long term we will all be dead." All of our lives coincided with a transition period. Now we are slowly passing away. I do not think that Turkey is so grateful as to remember me personally. However, how will Mr Dogan be remembered in, say, the second half of the 21st century?
Hopefully he will not be remembered like Baba Tahir of Malumat [a late 19th century weekly that was said to be the political mouthpiece of Sultan Abdulhamit II]. However, will he remembered like an Erol Simavi [former owner of Hurriyet] or a Halil Lutfi [leading publisher of newspapers in the 1930s-1960s]?