from homicides to extortion, currency counterfeiting, fraud, money laundering, banking offenses, the illegal manipulation of tenders and the illicit trafficking of drugs as well as the smuggling of illicit cultural and historical works of art. Turkish criminal gangs, however, started feeling the heat in the late 1990s when law enforcement officials were encouraged to launch major operations in a more professional and organized manner.
However, this accelerated fight against organized crime was slowed down back in 2001, when it was understood that some of the grafters had strong links with some members of the then-coalition government.
It was the operation launched in January 2001, dubbed "Operation White Energy," by Turkey's paramilitary forces (Gendarmerie General Command - JGK) that I'm referring to, when the then-coalition government and the senior commanders of the JGK and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) were understood to have entered into an implicit collaboration to kill the probe.
A recent book published by a retired Staff Col. Aziz Ergen titled "Alliance of the Dirty Hands" is shedding some light on how the "White Energy" corruption probe was swept under the carpet.
Col. Ergen had been one of the senior actors investigating corruption charges within the Energy Ministry and its affiliated institutions such as state-owned Turkish Pipeline Company (BOTAŞ), the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) and electricity arm TEDAŞ. The probe centered on the irregularities concerning electricity tenders, prompting the then government to allow investments made on building natural gas plants producing costly electricity. Before being released, several senior bureaucrats of the Energy Ministry, together with some businessmen and a politician-turned businessman, were investigated over graft charges concerning tenders opened for electricity as part of privatization.
The graft charges, through acts of organized crime, led to the collapse of the then Minister of Energy Cumhur Ersümer of the Motherland Party (ANAVATAN), at that time a member of the three-way coalition government.
If the probe on energy related tenders ha d not been not closed down at the time, allegations over irregularities within the Blue Stream project, which brings Russian gas to Turkey via a pipeline through the Black Sea, were going to be investigated, retired Col. Ergen stresses in his recently published book.
The probe also, and surprisingly, prompted in August of 2001 a shake-up within the Gendarmerie, which though linked administratively to the Ministry of the Interior, is in fact part of the military. Gen. Osman Özbek, a senior figure in the planning and conducting of the "White Energy" operation, resigned when he was denied promotion to a higher rank, one he expected due to his resolve in his fight against corruption. Some colonels, including Aziz Ergen, were also subject to a purge.
In his book, which he wrote an almost six years after the corruption probe, Ergen tries in some ways to shed light on the reasons why both the civilian and the military team trying to unearth the corruption scandal were silenced.
In one instance Ergen visits Turkey's ailing then Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit, leader of the tri-party coalition government, to explain about the "White Energy" probe. Ergen tells in his book how he was surprised when Ecevit told him that he was told a different story on the probe, adding that he would examine the files the colonel brought to him. Ergen found out after his meeting with Ecevit that Hüsamettin Özkan, the then deputy prime minister from Ecevit's Democratic Left Party (DSP), was in fact distorting the facts on the probe.
Ergen attempts to lift the veil behind the reasons for the closure of the "White Energy" probe, and he questions the attitudes of the then commander of Gendarmerie General Command, Aytaç Yalman, together with then Chief of General Staff Gen. Hüseyin Kıvrıkoğlu over the energy corruption investigation.
Ergen asks: "What could have been the reasons behind the insistence of some of the members of the Cabinet of the time who adopted a negative stance against those investigating the probe for the unusual appointment of then Gen. Yalman as the Commander of the Land Forces Command and the failed attempt to extend the term of the duty of the then Chief of General Staff Gen. Hüseyin Kıvrıkoğlu for another year?"
I am sure Ergen knows the answer to the above question, but he prefers to be discreet.
But at least he offers a clue to those like me who thought that the then collaboration between some coalition government members and Yalman and Kıvrıkoğlu to kill the "White Energy" probe lay behind Yalman's operation to be appointed land forces commander and Kıvrıkoğlu to extend his term of duty for another year.
Kıvrıkoğlu, in particular, needed the consent of all the leaders of the then coalition government to extend his term of duty for another year, and the only way to achieve this failed attempt was to sweep the "White Energy" corruption probe under the carpet.
The end result is that those investigating the corruption allegations were punished and those closing down the probe were rewarded.
