The massacre case and the events I tried to explain were like two parallel worlds. They were like the subconscious and conscious. The case (conscious) focused on murders and perpetrators who were caught at the crime scene immediately after the massacre took place, but there was another world (subconscious) surrounding the case in which highly sophisticated messages, threats, manipulations and many other things were happening. These two different worlds never came to together. The case is still pending. The case I opened due to the threats and other things has already been closed since it was not possible to identify the perpetrators.
Once Freud said if the human conscious is the tip of the iceberg, the unconscious part is the one that remains under the water, which means we can only see a small part of reality. Not only in the Malatya massacre case, but also in the Hrant Dink case and in many other attacks targeting Christians in Turkey, we can only see the tip of the iceberg.
When Hrant Dink was killed there were some moments in which we had the opportunity to see the unconscious part of society and the system in Turkey. There was a queue in the gendarmerie and police stations to take a photo with Ogün Samast, the murderer of the Armenian journalist. When Samast arrived at prison, cheers and applause echoed from every corner of the building. Can you find the real perpetrators of Hrant Dink’s murder in such an atmosphere?
First of all, the prosecutors are not capable of understanding this reality, of which, most probably, they are in mental and psychological conformity with. In these cases, in the Ergenekon case, to be able to see fully and follow what the evidence suggests, the prosecutors and judges need to go well beyond their usual mental makeup and their comfort zones. I tried to explain in this column before that the Ergenekon case is full of evidence showing that this gang had done many things against Christians, but prosecutors simply follow these links to the extent that they are related to coup attempts.
Their reluctance to follow the evidence and all links resulted in two very costly deficiencies. One is that Turkey has never seen the full picture, and the cases were dissociated from their depth and historical context. This historical context is actually derived from the uninterrupted history of the Turkish deep state. The second deficiency is the inability to uncover all links and parts which make up the whole deep state structure. Of course, I should also refrain from doing an injustice to the prosecutors whose work has been hampered on so many different levels; they may not even be able to get into military areas or bases to collect first hand evidence.
In spite of all these deficiencies and mistakes, Ergenekon and all other deep state cases provided much relief for non-Muslims and intellectuals in Turkey. These cases could not uncover all links, but at least paralyzed the operational parts of deep state structures. They have lost their ability to commit assassinations and murders, the methods which they had been using in Turkey for ages to manipulate public opinion, silence outspoken intellectuals and to scare target groups.
Is this a peace that will last forever? Would it be impossible for the shadowy network to organize once again to take up their old business? Unfortunately there are signs suggesting that the gang may be recovering once again to carry out certain acts. Very recently, one Protestant pastor was provided with a bodyguard by Ergenekon case prosecutors who believe that an assassination cell employed by Ergenekon has just been activated. Before Christmas, Protestants were warned by police to be very careful about the packages sent to them. Similar things may be happening to other non-Muslims groups as well. Nowadays, manipulative news stories and analyses about the Malatya and Dink cases are in circulation once again on the Internet.
If Ergenekon’s unveiled parts were able to carry out the assassination of non-Muslim targets, they would achieve a multilayered goal. First, they would seem to prove that there is no link between the relative peace Christians have enjoyed recently and the commencement of the Ergenekon probe. Second, they would create a chaotic atmosphere just before the elections, which will take place in less than a year. And, of course, they could create imaginary links between the “Islamist party” in power and assaults on Christians and use them to persuade international audiences.
I really hope that we can prevent anything else from happening and can continue to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere we have been enjoying in a post-Ergenekon Turkey. Have a good Sunday.
