8 Comments on “The Nasrallah Interview”

• A Scan

  19 August, 2006, 0:52

  I have to warn everyone that this interview is a scam. It is not an interview by Nasrallah. BE WARNED!
• I am Hezballah

  19 August, 2006, 5:20

  This interview phony. You can tell from the first setence that it is not Nasrallah speaking. He never mentions socialists, ever.
• Mohamad Zaki Hussein

  21 August, 2006, 18:00

  I don’t have any fact whether this interview is a phony or not, but if I saw Robert Pape article at New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/opinion/03pape.html?ex=1312257600&en=622d42186901404b&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss) then this interview can be true.

  Actually, this kind of blending between Islamic and left-nationalist discourse is not something new to the Islamic world. If one has read the works of Ali Shariati or Hassan Hanafi, then one can find the same nuances.

  Regards,
  Zaki
• taylan

  1 September, 2006, 17:03

  STATEMENT FROM EVRENSEL DAILY
  ABOUT THE FORGED NASRALLAH INTERVIEW

  Taylan Bilgic
  Cihan Celik
  Foreign News Desk
  Evrensel Daily / ISTANBUL
  TURKEY

  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 not more than ‘qualified 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.