Ergenekon alive and operational

The CHP, which aligns itself with marginal organizations, including the Workers' Party (İP), the Atatürkist Thought Association (ADD) and the All Youth Union, is now serving like a violent organization rather than a political party. There are now serious doubts and suspicions as to whether this party, which holds raids in prisons and courthouses or tries to block the trial through the use of violence or acts that provoke violent marginal groups, is really a democratic and civilian political party.

The source of motivation and strength of these groups that attempted to occupy the hearing hall by clashing with security officers in Silivri to block the 270th hearing in the trial of the Ergenekon case and to put pressure upon judges and prosecutors should be questioned and investigated. I think you must be blind not to see that this motivation and courage is based on the actual structure of the Ergenekon terrorist organization, a small part of which has been uncovered thus far. The illegal showdown in Silivri on Thursday indicates that Turkey has a long way to go to attain a democratic and normalized environment. What happened in Silivri clearly show that some circles -- particularly those that call themselves intellectuals -- hold hope from the pro-coup structures rather than dealing with the pro-coup mentality. They must have become less hopeful of coming to power through political means, and so the CHP deputies rely on violence once again. It is no coincidence that all the deputies who made provocative statements in their speeches at the site and participated in the violent protests in Silivri are members of the CHP. It is clear that either the CHP has turned into an Ergenekon structure or the Ergenekon terrorist organization has infiltrated the CHP to acquire political camouflage.

Those protesters, mostly CHP members who insulted and threatened the panel of judges and who were able to enter the courtroom, praised the suspects who were being tried in connection with charges including promoting a coup, devising plans to cause chaos and committing murder and massacres. They also chanted slogans: “Turkey is proud of you,” “We are not leaving without taking you” and “We are soldiers of Mustafa Kemal.” However, the murders of people who were slaughtered by these people that the CHP members and other marginal groups have supported via protests and slogans still remain unresolved. The pain they caused is still fresh. The horrible coups and massacres they planned to commit still linger in their minds. Despite all this, these pro-Ergenekon people believe that there is no such organization as Ergenekon. For some reason, despite horrible evidence and information in the court indictments, these people are not convinced. They argue that all the evidence and incidents in the indictments, including the hand grenades found in Ümraniye, arms and ammunition buried in Poyrazköy, voice recordings kept upon instructions from a gendarmerie commander, hundreds of confidential documents, the coup journal kept by Mustafa Balbay and Adm. Özden Örnek, the coup plans and the Council of State murder are all fabricated. But is this really the case?

Orhan Miroğlu, who has remained associated with the pro-Kurdish political movement all his life and who recently published a book on the 1992 assassination of journalist-writer Musa Anter, an attack he himself survived after sustaining heavily injuries, does not agree with the CHP members. Known for his columns in Today's Zaman as well as for his book, “Kuşatmadan İnfaza: Musa Anter Cinayeti” (From Siege to Execution: Musa Anter Murder), Miroğlu says only a small part of Ergenekon has been uncovered so far. He narrates the existence of this organization and its murders despite the fact that the CHP members do not believe that such an organization does really exist. Will the CHP members, including CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, repeat these attitudes of denial by looking into the eyes of Kurdish intellectuals such as Orhan Miroğlu, who has suffered extensively from the acts of this organization and barely survived the brutalities of the Ergenekon-like deep state gangs that cooperated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist organization?

Despite the efforts by the CHP and some marginal groups who mobilized to prove that there are no shady deep state structures such as Ergenekon or the Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counterterrorism Group Command (JİTEM), an illegal formation within the gendarmerie, Miroğlu's painful experiences which he has shared in his latest book suggest the opposite: “A large portion of generals who have become defendants at the case against Ergenekon, like Arif Doğan [the founder and former commander of JİTEM] have served in the East and Southeast for a long time. Kurds know Arif Doğan, Veli Küçük, Sarı Levent and Cemal Temizöz very well. Thousands of unsolved murders have been committed under the pretext of an unfair war and illegal economic mechanisms are responsible for the death of too many people.

“We hoped that thanks to the Ergenekon investigation, we would finally learn how these economic mechanisms work and how bureaucratic and political posts are illegally obtained and Turkey would settle its accounts with the shady incidents of the past. If the process had been managed well, the steps taken to solve the Kurdish issue would not be blocked at a certain level.

“There was a clear connection between the Ergenekon case and the JİTEM one, which has been going on since 1989 in Diyarbakır. Thus the two case files should be merged. Until now, 17 cases have been merged with the Ergenekon case and a significant portion of the suspects of these 17 cases are people who have served in the eastern and southeastern regions for a long time. Turkey has expected that the crimes, including the unsolved murders committed by the Ergenekon terrorist organization east of the Euphrates river, would be considered together with the political atmosphere which laid the groundwork for these crimes. However, neither the government nor the opposition parties have shown their willingness to make it possible. Each party has their reason; I am not going to elaborate on their stances. However, if Turkey had reached a national consensus over the Kurdish issue, the Kurdish wings of Ergenekon [the PKK] would have been defeated and the ties between the PKK and the Kurds would have been broken.

“But it didn't work out that way. After a point, the Justice and Development Party [AK Party] government was forced to rethink the facts after the political atmosphere was sabotaged by the PKK and it decided to suspend the Kurdish initiative. As if the government differentiated the activities of the Ergenekon network on the other side of the Euphrates river and froze this issue. ... The Ergenekon network operating on the other side of the Euphrates remains untouched. … A large portion of its victims are Kurdish citizens. However, those feeding on the victimization of the Kurdish people do not want to shed light on all the dark incidents in the history of our country. And it does not seem that they would want to do this in the future.”

Underlining that the PKK has never been held accountable for its bloody massacres, Miroğlu indicated that a large portion of the Ergenekon network remains untouched and this part of the network has close relations with the PKK. In order to reveal these facts, we cannot expect too much from the CHP, whose political genes have been manipulated via coups and the operations of the deep state. It is obvious that despite of all the democratic developments, the CHP will continue to support military coups and the tutelary structures. On the other hand, all the democrats in this country have a right to expect the AK Party to lend the political support that is necessary for the continuation for the coup cases because, just like all Turks who demand freedom, the AK Party also was a victim of these shady networks. The AK Party will continue to be victimized by Ergenekon as long as the deep structures of Ergenekon are not revealed, just like in the scandalous Uludere incident which saw 34 smugglers mistakenly killed by the military in Şırnak's Uludere district.

Stop trying to fool yourselves. Despite the numerous generals and military officers detained and standing trial under the scope of the Ergenekon terrorist organization investigation, Ergenekon is still surviving without much damage and continues to carry out its illegal activities. Moreover, it still has broad support in business, politics and media circles.