The absence of an indictment in the Ergenekon case had been the subject of much criticism. Now that the indictment is ready, everyone is eyeing how the case will conclude in court, with the hope that it will pave the way before a more democratic and transparent state of law in which military interventions are no longer possible.Star’s Şamil Tayyar thinks the prosecutor’s choosing to announce his charges about the Ergenekon gang with evidence to back his allegations is actually a challenge to those who try to defame and downplay the Ergenekon operation. “This shows the prosecutor’s confidence in his allegations. From now on, responsibility has moved on to the court which will hear the Ergenekon case. We will see whether the court will show the same sensitivity the prosecutor has and what kind of a ruling will come out at the end of the court process,” says Tayyar. In his view, the Ergenekon case will radically influence Turkey’s near future, resulting in not only legal consequences, but also political ones. Tayyar believes that the Ergenekon case will change the codes of shadowy organizations and trigger initiatives for modernization. “Nothing will be the same as before,” he claims, basing his argument on two developments that have recently taken place in Turkey: First, Turkey is confronting coups by detaining former generals who were involved in coup plans. Secondly, Turkey is investigating past assassinations that remain unsolved. “This is what I meant when I said nothing will be the same in Turkey again,” adds Tayyar.
Milliyet’s Taha Akyol comments on why the coup journal entries of a former general uncovered by the weekly Nokta magazine last year are absent from the Ergenekon indictment. He explains the subject of the Ergenekon indictment as acts which were revealed following the discovery of bombs in a shanty house in İstanbul’s Ümraniye district last summer. “These are incidents that mostly occurred in İstanbul. The reason why some individuals in Ankara were detained or arrested and their houses searched as part of this investigation is because they were legally linked with the incidents taking place in İstanbul,” explains Akyol, adding that the allegations in the indictment are not “military charges,” hence a civilian prosecutor carried out this investigation instead of a military one. “Turkey will be the winning party in this case; in other words, democracy and law [will prevail],” he adds.
Another Star daily columnist, Eser Karakaş, says the Ergenekon case has two dimensions: one legal, one institutional. He hopes the legal side of the case will run through to the end and that Turkey will become a better place to live at the end of all this, however, Karakaş sees the institutional dimension of the Ergenekon case as more important. In this regard, he maintains that unless military-civilian relations are not normalized, coming to the level and institutional structure of relations found in modern democratic countries, no matter how the legal process concludes, it will not be a determining factor in changing the balance of power in Turkey. “As you know, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) are not institutionally attached to the body of the Prime Ministry; they are only answerable to the prime minister. While the legal side of the Ergenekon case is being sorted out, if we can also deal with this institutional problem about the TSK’s position, we will be able to turn a political crisis into an opportunity,” maintains Karakaş.
