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Turkey’s Ergenekon case
12-06-2010 20:51
Drama endures, no finale in sight for Turkey’s Ergenekon case...
As the Ergenekon case marks its third year of arrests and indictments, it remains to be seen whether the ongoing investigation will help Turkey leave behind shadowy ‘deep state’ allegations or further embroil the country in a power struggle between the ruling party and its critics. The Daily News looks back at key events and figures and what it all may mean.
It had all the makings of a political drama that would go down in history: secret caches of weapons, dead-of-the-night arrests and an alleged coup conspiracy featuring gang leaders uniting with top military and business figures.
But three years since the discovery of 27 hand grenades in an Istanbul neighborhood marked the start of the Ergenekon story, the ongoing case has dulled into wave after wave of seemingly indistinguishable arrests, indictments and documents. With more than 200 figures now detained in connection with the alleged ultranationalist, shadowy gang, is Turkey any closer to the truth?
The case is “moving further and further away from reality” in its third year, according to journalist Gareth Jenkins, whose report “Between Fact and Fantasy: Turkey’s Ergenekon Investigation” criticizes the case from day one. Ergenekon, Jenkins said, is “quickly becoming a major embarrassment for the legal system although its supporters consider it a great achievement.”
When asked if he can foresee an end to the investigation, Jenkins said, “When you look at it objectively, [the case] is going to collapse eventually.”
Oral Çalışlar, a columnist for daily Radikal, disagreed, saying the case has “reached its goal” by most counts and is only progressing slowly because so many suspects are involved. “As far as I can see, this case [was opened] to prevent a coup ... [and] many people who were allegedly going to take part in the coup are now under arrest or under judicial surveillance so they cannot carry it out,” Çalışlar said. “I believe this case has made a positive contribution to the democratization process of Turkey and the preventing of coups.”
The main debate around the case has centered on whether it is a valiant effort to take down the “deep state” – a nebulous collection of security personnel, mafia figures, members of Cold War-era Gladio “stay-behind” networks and secularist elites who act for their own benefit, independently of whatever government is in charge – or simply a Justice and Development Party, or AKP, hoax that the ruling party has concocted to silence its opposition.
Detractors say attempts to close the AKP for “anti-secular activities” and other judicial and military pressures have led the ruling party to embark on a campaign against the opposition. And as time passes, even the case’s heartiest supporters are beginning to wonder why many civilians languish in jail without a conviction when the alleged military masterminds of the coup remain free.
“Ergenekon is a case about democratizing the state versus purging [it of corruption] for me, but the arrests take the legitimacy away from it,” said lawyer Mücteba Kılıç, the president of the Taraf Readers Association, adding that it is routine for the Turkish judiciary to arrest every suspect and then release those who are found innocent. According to Kılıç, the case has not reached every wing of the Ergenekon gang. “They could not reach everyone; people who have publicly committed crimes are still out [there],” he said.
In addition, Kılıç said the case has actually been proceeding rapidly given how many suspects are involved because “even a standard murder case [in Turkey] with a single case lasts eight to nine years.”
The murder of Priest Andrea Santoro in Trabzon on Feb. 5, 2006, the three bombings of daily Cumhuriyet in Istanbul in May 2006, the attack on the Counsel of State that led to the death of a judge on May 17, 2006, and the Zirve massacre in Malatya on April 18, 2007, are all part of the Ergenekon indictments.
Two Ergenekon indictments are currently being heard in court this year; the second and third cases were merged Aug. 7, 2009, and a fourth is said to be on the way.
Ergenekon prior to 2007
Though June 12, 2010, marks the third year of the discovery of 27 hand grenades in a shanty house in Istanbul belonging to a retired non-commissioned officer, Ergenekon was first mentioned in a TV news program in 1996 by journalist and author Can Dündar, as he explains in his book co-written with Celal Kazdağlı, “Ergenekon: Devlet İçinde Devlet” (Ergenekon: Government Within a Government), first printed in 1997.
Scholar and author Dr. Erol Mütercimler said on Dündar’s show “40 Dakika” (40 Minutes) that he was first told about Ergenekon by high-ranking Gen. Memduh Ünlütürk at the famous Ziverbey Villa where people were questioned after the 1971 coup. “It is an organization that is above the chief of General Staff, bureaucracy, government, everybody,” Mütercimler said on the show. “It was founded after 1960 by the CIA and the Pentagon. Generals who receive counter-guerilla training in America join it when the day comes. It features military officers, police personnel, professors, journalists, businessmen, ordinary people.”
Ironically, Mütercimler was among the people who were arrested within the scope of the Ergenekon case in 1997. He’s just one of the 200 journalists, writers, military personnel, gang leaders, scholars, businessmen, lawyers, civil servants and politicians who have been detained thus far.
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