This is funny, even childish. The other day, I was having dinner with a small group of influential businessmen and media personalities who were linked to the largest media group in the country. At one point, the friendly conversation entered into the subject of the Ergenekon case. With cynical expressions on their faces, I was asked, “Well, what is Ergenekon?”Although I urged them to read the indictment with recent Turkish history in mind and give the trial and judges a chance, it was obvious they had already dismissed the case in their minds. It was invalid. When I asked, to help raise their suspicion, why people like Bedrettin Dalan and Turhan Çömez, two politicians implicated in the case, did not return to Turkey from where they are hiding, the response was, “Well, they probably do not trust the Turkish justice system.”
These are the same people who never would question the validity of justice, for example, in the verdict against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the recent closure case and would find no reason to file a suit against the military for issuing a memorandum the night of April 27, 2007.
Deep divisions exist and seem hard to overcome. In other meetings, like the dinner some weeks ago, I listened to a lengthy analysis of the Deniz Feneri case, including a conspiracy theory charging the German government of launching the case in order to change the entire course of Turkish politics. The analysis was based on various arguments, almost legitimizing the immobility of Turkish authorities to further investigate the extension of the case at home.
The numbers of people, these days, who are eager to limit democracy and justice within their own (or their group's) sphere is amazingly high. Double standards are never overrated, it seems.
Intolerance and obstinacy, two widespread cultural features, feed opportunism and, consequently, polarity.
One of the people, as a few stories make clear, who figure in the Deniz Feneri fraud case is Zahid Akman, head of the powerful Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK). Despite the fact that Akman has faced harsh criticism since the launch of the case against Deniz Feneri, he refuses to step down from his post.
In September 2008, a German court convicted three Turkish men of funneling $26 million in charitable contributions raised by Deniz Feneri to conservative companies in Turkey. The Chief Prosecutor's Office at the Supreme Court of Appeals received copies of the proceedings of the Deniz Feneri fraud trial in Germany to investigate possible links between the ruling party and the charity organization.
Akman is implicated in some six separate investigations, in various “affairs.” Stories are unfolding, despite the bias of parts of the press. The last one concerned faking a document from German authorities for self-serving purposes, which has led to a new investigation. Akman's press conference did not produce a satisfactory explanation.
The RTÜK is, by law, autonomous. Still, the case of Akman has become a headache for the AK Party. He has had the open backing of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, but Bülent Arınç openly, and other prominent figures in the AK Party more discreetly, raised concerns over Akman's stubborn refusal to resign. If the case implicates him more explicitly, this will threaten to divide the party. The RTÜK's credibility is already shaken. We have also learned that a member of the body from the Republican People's Party (CHP) had “deeply intimate” relations with one of the accused in the Ergenekon trial, Tuncay Özkan. He apologized, but the apology has not helped disperse suspicions.
The Akman case is now at the forefront. His term as the chairman will end in a month, but even if he does not continue in that capacity, his membership in the RTÜK, which he intends to keep, will be still troublesome.
Turkey's fragile democracy is not only under threat from external forces. There is also an enemy within, a virus that keeps it infected. The day a decent resignation becomes the norm, albeit used in discontent, Turks will feel the impact of that huge step.
