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Hezbollah
Denounces Evrensel Interview of Nasrallah as a Fake
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
Hussain Rahhal, Hezbollah's press liaison,
has issued a written statement:
"Our secretary general
Nasrallah has not given any interviews to any Turkish or other
non-Lebanese journalist during the month of August. In the face
of this imaginary interview that is untruthful, and hence does
damage to journalism, credibility and objectivity, Hezbollah
reserves its right to take legal action against those who have
published it."
This is in reference to an
interview purporting to be of Hezbollah's leader,Sayeed Hassan
Nasrallah, by a Turkish collective in Beirut. It was published
in Evrensel, a socialist Turkish daily, on August 12 and 13,
causing some stir in the Turkish press. It was translated into
English and posted on least one left site, Marxmail, one of whose
readers forwarded it to CounterPunch. We ran excerpts from it
on August 17.
In an item last weekend I noted
charges that the interview was fraudulent, also interesting and
important observations about radical components in the Shi'a
tradition, which might buttress arguments for the interview's
genuineness. I hope this particular fakery won't discredit those
insights, which are important for the left.
Hezbollah's denunciation is
categorical, and should be taken as the last word, though if
there are any significant or interesting updates we'll let CounterPunchers
know. I do find Hezbollah's threat of legal action somewhat comical.
Will they also try to drag Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner and
other barons of the First World press into the World Court for
misrepresentation? Wasn't that the hope of the proposed New World
Information Order, twenty-five or so years ago?
Postscript:
Today we received this statement
from Evrensel Daily.
It is now clearly understood
that, the so-called "interview" with Hezbollah leader,
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, which appeared on our newspaper (12th
August) in Turkey is a forgery.
Press Representative of Hezbollah,
Hussein Rahhal, on a question asked by the official Anatolian
Agency correspondent, replied that Nasrallah has not conducted
any interview with any Turkish journalist in August.
With this forgery, "Mutlu
Sahin" and "Roza Cigdem Erdogan", the forgers,
who are members of the "Sheikh Bedreddin Film Collective"
(Turkish initials, SBFK) have attempted to tarnish the reliability
of Evrensel, a 12-years old socialist newspaper. But this is
not all. They have attempted to erode the reliability of all
progressive, antiwar, antiimperialist sources and people all
over the world; as the "interview" had far reaching
consequences than they probably have imagined in their pathetic
minds.
Evrensel General Coordinator,
Ihsan Caralan, has made a written statement about the developments.
This statement is printed on the 2nd September, 2006 issue of
Evrensel, from the front page... We believe this statement will
shed light into the forgery, though the real aims and connections
of the instigators are still unknown ...
Here is the statement:
"This 'interview' was
sent to us by members of the Sheikh Bedreddin Film Collective
members, Mutlu Sahin and Roza Cigdem Erdogan. The fact that these
people who are known as 'documentary filmmakers' were members
of a known cultural organization is the most important factor
that we approached them without any suspicion.
These people, whose "Beirut
impressions" were printed in some other newspapers and internet
sites, have also sent us, before the said "interview",
their 'Beirut impressions' and these were printed on our paper,
too.
The so-called interview with
Sheikh Nasrallah included symphatetic remarks about historical
persona such as Deniz Gezmis and Che Guevera. These remarks were
found suspicious by us; but at that time our thought was that
Hezbollah, who had won the support of Islamic circles, was attempting
to erase the prejudices and suspicions in the West and especially,
in left-wing circles by these words. Our aim of publishing the
'interview' was, our desire to reflect the developments of an
important conflict from all perspectives.
After the interview was published,
there were various suspicions raised in various circles. Because
of this, we demanded from Mutlu Sahin that he should immediately
confirm that the interview was actually done. But they have evaded
us until the last minute by continuously saying that they will
confirm the interview, will present documented evidence, make
Hezbollah print the interview on their website etc.
When the news of Anatolian
Agency was put into service, we immediately sent the text to
them via Windows Messenger. After reading the message, and without
making any comment, Mutlu Sahin became offline and from then
on, did not answer our phone calls.
As obvious to all, this attitude
amounts to nothing more than an 'unqualified forgery'. Our newspaper,
since the beginning, has uphold the principles of peoples' right
to true information and learning the truth. But another principle
of our newspaper is follow-up. Thus, we will continue to seek
and tell the truth about these people and the figures behind
them, if there are any.
These people are responsible
for cheating us and thus, making us the instrument of the dissemination
of false information. But nevertheless, we cannot evade our own
responsibility as the newspaper who printed this false interview.
We have encountered such a situation for the first time in our
history and this teaches us again that meticulousness in newsmaking
should never be forgotten.
We sincerely apologize from
our readers, from the various publications (online or print)
who trusted us and printed this text and those who translated
the text to various languages and sent it to various news resources."
And here is another recent
development from the film collective. This piece of news below
also appeared on Evrensel on 2nd September.
SBFK did not even apologize
Mutlu Sahin and Roza Cigdem
Erdogan, who had their names on the fake interview are nowhere
to be found. Meanwhile, SBFK made an announcement yesterday:
"This sudden development
about the interview was totally unexpected. SBFK Press Representative
Yilmaz Kilickaya, Foreign Relations Coordinator Zafer Hanoglu,
members Roza Cigdem Erdogan, Berfin Gunes and Esra Celik, have
gone to Beirut to inform the public and put an end to the debate.
After weekend, they will inform
the public on behalf of SBFK, which Hezbollah representatives
will also attend.
We had declared that we retain
some of our rights. We will explain these rights in this last
information we will give.
From now on, the drawees are
not Roza Cigdem Erdogan or Mutlu Sahin, but our collective. Until
this last information meeting, we deem our friends innocent.
After that last moment in which all debate will be put an end,
their duties and authorities are suspended temporarily. We also
note that we will not take seriously the attacks and insults
circulating the internet against our collective and our members.
Now
Available
from CounterPunch Books!
The Case
Against Israel
By Michael Neumann
CounterPunch
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