This move has dealt a heavy blow to Turkey’s deep-rooted state image. And when you add to that the speculation that Fidan will be arrested when he goes to testify, the crisis grows even deeper. Serious damage will be done to intelligence activities if the identities of MİT agents in the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK are revealed. This is certain.
As for the police and the justice system, they have taken action without thinking about such possibilities. This is also certain.
But why exactly are we in this situation today? Because the political leadership wants to see the changes unfolding in Turkey happening under the hands of the police and the justice system.
A political leadership that has not only remained silent in the face of arrests of journalists and academics but has even supported these processes has done more to move away from democracy than pave the way toward it. What’s more, the fact that everyone in this country who engages in politics or follows politics closely thinks the new constitution is a fairytale does a lot to underscore the enormity of the problem.
It was inevitable that the police and the justice system would play a key role in the elimination of the former regime, which was rife with shadowy activities. And when the police and justice system took this role on their shoulders, the situation made it an absolute condition that the political leadership in power would support this process and these actors. What the political leadership ought to have done, however, but did not, was to maintain the authority to limit and define the scale of this cleaning up.
The words “under every condition,” which were placed in the law, allowing courts with special authorities to be formed, gave incredible power to the İstanbul justice system in particular. The actors in this justice system, who have won respect and esteem during cases like Ergenekon and Balyoz, have begun to expand their spheres of power more and more with the passage of time. As for the political leadership, while it is uncomfortable by this expansion, it has shied away from actually doing anything about it, or trying to limit the actions of these legal circles. And to tell the truth, this is the right thing to do. The real problem does not derive from people but from the system.
Up until now, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has ignored the real source of the problem. But now it sees the true dimensions of the problem, as the crisis surrounding the KCK investigation presses up against its door.
This crisis is too deep to be solved by changing Article 250 of the Penal Judgment Law or the MİT Law. And the fact that not enough thought has been put into the new system will take the place of the old one as it is being eliminated is a clear result of the assumption that it will be fine to replace the European Union criteria with the Ankara criteria, and continue on our path. After all, joining the European Union was never a target we could reach simply by making alterations to our systems concerning agriculture or food. Rather, this target should be thought of as a whole, from the constitution to civil society organizations to the justice system with a pro-freedom mentality.
And the further Ankara has drifted from this target, the greater the problems have grown in size. Self-confidence is great but excessive confidence that lacks true foundations can come with extreme risks. What has unfolded with the MİT crisis shows us that it is not a problem that has derived solely from the İstanbul police or the justice system. I do hope that it will spark a renewal in the reform process; otherwise, it does not seem impossible that we may have to return to the very beginning all over again.
