Inside, it is attempting to settle the infamous Kurdish issue and make progress with respect to the solution of the problems facing the Alevi community and non-Muslim minorities. Outside, it is seeking to untangle the established Armenian and Cyprus issues and several other issues. There is no doubt that the fact that these efforts for resolution can be launched and are being maintained is closely related to the Ergenekon investigation. While we are having difficulties in getting foreigners to understand this connection, groups of people with common sense and reason virtually agree that there is such a connection. In a nutshell, this is the main argument: if, thanks to the Ergenekon investigation, the “deep state” networks nested within the state apparatus and which readily resort to illegal methods in achieving their goals and whose involvement in many dark unresolved mysterious events or murders can be easily traced had not been exposed to daylight, the government would not have been so bold as to take steps toward settling so many gangrenous domestic and international issues.If, despite all its hardships and the fact that we are at the beginning of the road, we can talk about efforts for normalizing Turkey's relations with Armenia, and, all the more, if we can take important steps toward this target, we cannot ignore the fact that this has been made possible by the environment in which a dark and misty network has been revealed by the Ergenekon investigation. Whenever Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan intended to meet with pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) leader Ahmet Türk, shocking and mysterious events would break out or many Turkish soldiers would be martyred in heinous attacks. Likewise, whenever preparations for making any move to settle the Kurdish issue were made, some bloody provocations would arise and cause these initiatives to be terminated prematurely. Numerous examples can be found in our recent past to sufficiently explain what I am trying to say.
Yes, but does everyone sufficiently support the Ergenekon investigation, which plays such a critical role in the historic peace efforts that will establish social peace within the country and ensure that Turkey has smooth and amicable relations with its neighbors and spends all its energy on the happiness and welfare of the nation like any other civilized country? No, this is not the case in the least. Many people and groups whose indebtedness to domestic and external issues for their prestige and importance has now become completely clear, and who tend to view every step taken in tackling these issues as a major blow to their power, are making every possible kind of obstruction, let alone giving any support to the Ergenekon investigation. Wielding great power and far-reaching influence in spite of their small numbers, these groups are still cherishing every opportunity and every means available to them, including the armed, media, bureaucratic and judicial power, to maim the Ergenekon investigation, and show solidarity, to the highest degree, with Ergenekon's active members as well as its members who are now standing trial. They try to afford them protection or, in the least, boost their morale at every opportunity. They attempt to protect this shadowy network whose intention is to ignore the nation's electoral preferences, overthrow the government and close down Parliament has been exposed in the indictment, and by doing this in full view of the entire nation, they challenge the popular will and rule of law.
We do not need to go too far back in order to explain what we mean. We can just have a look at the Victory Day reception hosted on Aug. 30 by Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ, who uses every occasion to assert that the mentality of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), whose past is rife with coups, has changed and that it is now completely loyal to the rule of law and democracy. The reception, to which the wives of President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Erdoğan and several ministers were not invited because they wear headscarves, was like an official parade of Ergenekon. During the reception, which added to the TSK image as the guardian of Ergenekon, several Ergenekon defendants such as Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO) President Sinan Aygün, former National Security Council (MGK) Secretary-General President Tuncer Kılınç, Constitutional Court Deputy Chairman Osman Paksüt and his wife Ferda Paksüt were hosted with respect, and those who observed this have not developed good feelings about the TSK and the General Staff. This scenery has refuted Başbuğ's previous remarks on their attachment to the rule of law and democracy and eliminated all doubts about the TSK's stance against Ergenekon, whose many members are also the members of the TSK.
Another scandalous example of protecting Ergenekon was seen in İstanbul. According to Zaman's headline, the İstanbul Bar Association, which in the past had attempted many times to obstruct the Ergenekon investigation, undertook two scandals. With a view to influencing the investigation and trial processes, the Bar Association prepared a report titled "Silivri Prison Trials" that examines the ongoing Ergenekon trial. The report was prepared by Silivri Prison Trials Technical Monitoring Commission. Do you know who the chairman of the commission which criticizes the trial is? Ali Rıza Dizdar, the lawyer of retired Lt. Gen. Leven Ersöz, an Ergenekon defendant in prison. Thus, it is no surprise that the claims voiced in this report overlap with the discourses of Ergenekon defendants and their lawyers. The latest attempt by the İstanbul Bar Association, which has tried every method in order to influence the judges hearing the Ergenekon case was luckily deciphered by prosecutor Mehmet Ali Pekgüzel. But, there is more to the Bar Association's mischievous efforts. They assigned one of Ergenekon's lawyers to the defense of defendant Osman Yıldırım, who had made disclosures about how the attacks against the Council of State and the Cumhuriyet newspaper were planned, and who, therefore, became a target of the Ergenekon terrorist organization. This is utterly unbelievable. Such a grave illegality cannot even be devised by Satan.
