Scenarios vs. reality

And perhaps the best part of it all is that despite the initial illegal opposition to the judges and prosecutors, the Turkish General Staff released a statement that -- at least verbally -- assented to the legality of the ongoing investigation into the “cosmic room,” also known as the “archive of state secrets,” and has not put up any official opposition or attempted to block the investigation. And no matter how many serious concerns and suspicions arise that the military has likely destroyed information and documents related to the assassination plan that is the subject of the current investigation, it still stands that the attitude of the General Staff -- which has always maintained a problematic stance with regard to the law and civilian will -- can be considered a positive development along the path to Turkey’s transformation into a true state of law. For, we did not see an attitude even this positive from the General Staff during the investigation into Ergenekon, whose foremost suspects were active and retired officers, or during the investigations into plans created by an entity within the military to wage a dirty war against the current administration and civil society to create chaos in order to prepare the ground for a coup d’état, including the Plan to Finish Off the AK Party and Gülen, the Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism and the Cage plan. It is for this reason that even this must be logged as a development in terms of the TSK’s respect for democracy and the rule of law.

The statement issued by the General Staff yesterday is rather enlightening with regard to the “cosmic room” investigation, which represents a first in Turkish military history. The statement reads: “As part of an ongoing investigation, a judge is personally performing a search that began on Dec. 26, 2009 at the Ankara Mobilization Regional Presidency in the division that includes documents that contain state secrets, as pursuant to Article 125 of the Code on Criminal Procedure No. 5271. During this inspection period being carried out by a single judge, naturally breaks are given for rest and administrative affairs, and for this reason, the inspection period is extended. It can be understood that this inspection, which is taking place entirely within legal bounds, may continue for some time.”

But how strange it is that while even the General Staff’s attitude is thus, while judges and prosecutors are taking allegations that top-level military brass had a hand in planning an assassination against Arınç seriously and doing something previously unheard of in sifting through the “Cosmic Room,” some media organizations and politicians -- led by Deniz Baykal -- are still trying their best to flip these events upside-down. It must be just a big coincidence that it’s been the same newspapers and television channels, the same journalists and columnists who at first took the detention of the commanders whose names are attached to the assassination plan as a joke, trying to water down the grave assassination allegations and are now, having failed at their previous attempts, creating outlandish scenarios to confuse minds about what’s going on. And what a great coincidence it is indeed that the same names are those we also saw frequently trying to water down the Ergenekon investigation.

Their method is so simple, but at the same time so very productive. You make up four or five different scenarios, complete figments of the imagination of your own making, to go along with the story that fits with the natural course of developments as they unfold. Then, you utilize the media power you have at hand and disseminate these so profusely that it becomes impossible for the public to distinguish between the real and manufactured elements of the story. In this way, you can succeed in getting the public -- even if only for a short while -- to see reality as only one of a series of scenarios. Even if you know that at the end of the day your lies will emerge as the truth prevails, you’ve won valuable time for a defense strategy to be drawn up or for criminal evidence to be eliminated. And what do you do when your lies are brought to light? I mean, what can you do -- it won’t be the first lie you’ve told the public, or the first time you’ve assumed everyone is stupid. So of course you’ll pick up with your work right where you left off, without any sense of shame whatsoever. Isn’t your main job misinformation anyway? It isn’t for nothing that Taraf columnist Ahmet Altan wrote, “In this country, the media work not to shed light on realities, but to cover them up.”

It must also be accepted that out of the many scenarios flying around, the most consternation-worthy was the product of Baykal’s creative imagination -- or the one that was prepared and given to him to broadcast aloud. The fact that this scenario could be found in some newspapers before Baykal voiced it makes the second option seem more viable. And just what is it that Baykal and his accomplices say? A treacherous person calls up the Special Forces Command and informs them that the mole they’ve been tracking met with Deputy Prime Minister Arınç. When the commanders roll onto Arınç’s street, the same treacherous person makes a phone call, this time to the police; he informs them that the investigating soldiers are preparing to assassinate Arınç. It is in this manner that soldiers in pursuit of a mole are taken into custody on suspicion of planning an assassination. And as a result of this, the period focusing today on the “Cosmic Room” begins.