Some other names were also included." If the allegations are true, the goal of the organization was to ensure a civil war broke out. The plan of Cumhuriyet publisher and columnist İlhan Selçuk, who is charged with serving as the civilian administrator of the organization, is to "let the fights grow so that the military will have to intervene (Zaman, Aug. 4, 2008)." The Ergenekon organization seeks to topple the government. Because they are convinced that this will not happen through democratic means, former İstanbul University Rector Kemal Alemdaroğlu says, "This job cannot be done through democracy." When elections and democracy are discarded, old methods left from the Unionist (İttihatçı) leaders are naturally considered -- and this is of course a coup.The point that needs to be underlined is that the entity called Ergenekon was verified by the National Intelligence Organization (MİT); but like the General Staff, MİT also asserts that they have no connection or relation to this organization or entity. Of course this does not necessarily mean that Ergenekon was not organized within the army and that it does not have extensions in it. But as an institution, the army has nothing to do with this; in other words, Ergenekon attempted to do something inside the army. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this "something" was a coup attempt. Therefore, it is possible that the upcoming supplemental indictment is related to this.
This picture can be drawn when these two points are combined: There is an entity outside of the institutional identity of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK); the goal of the entity is to cause turmoil and chaos and force the TSK to stage a coup in this chaotic environment. We can call this the creation of a suitable environment for a military coup.
Apparently the strategy was to stage a coup. The tactics were prepared based on a pretty simple logic: As noted by Selçuk, it was based on forcing the military to stage a coup with a fait accompli. First, the relevant external attempts would be made and the military would necessarily follow, anyway. Such horrible and terrorizing provocations would be carried out and such shocking assassinations and murder would be committed that the military would have to intervene because when internal safety is at stake and the government is paralyzed, unable to maintain law and order, relying on its own resources and opportunities, interference by the military would be inevitable.
This is one side of the coin. Of course, when the murders and assassinations committed in the near past are considered, the conclusion of this case is pretty important for the illumination of the near past because some circles -- especially religious -- were blamed for the murders and assassinations, the perpetrators of which were never identified. They were accused of crimes they did not commit and thanks to this, some other circles polarized the society to obtain political advantage.
Undoubtedly, the Ergenekon case is not all about this. In other words, there is one dimension of this operation that concerns foreign policy and is not discussed adequately. As is known, a National Security Council (MGK) secretary said a while ago that Turkey would draw a new road map that would exclude the US and the EU and that it might get closer to Russia, Iran and China. At the same time, a speech by then-Russian President Vladimir Putin was posted on the General Staff's Web site while the chief of general staff was on an official visit to the US.
All this led to the emergence of a view that a group inside the state which may be considered an important actor -- and not the state itself -- was eager to move Turkey from its Western orientation to the axis of Russia-Iran-China. As the operations become more conclusive and deeper, it becomes apparent that the entity called Ergenekon was really inclined toward Russia and that those who executed this operation were called "Eurasianists."
Considering all this, one cannot help but ask: Did the operations not seek to eliminate this group in addition to destroying their internal extensions? If so, it may be said that the US should be pretty content with these operations.
