According to the story the official was seeking, among other things, to determine the financial resources behind the "republic rallies" aimed at reawakening public support for the country's secular regime. However it was obvious that the main goal behind the rallies was actually to weaken the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) by attacking its past Islamist roots. In response to the Sabah-run story a statement was released on July 13 by retired Gen. Şener Eruygur, head of the ADD, claiming that some of the rallies were financed by individuals selling their gold rings.
He went on to say that the resources collected and used for the rallies were the result of "nationalist passion and heart," or strong belief in the cause.
Of course readers will be wondering what Eruygur was really talking about in his attempts to satisfy American questioning.
With this response he was indicating that those who attended the rallies made heavy sacrifices to join with others coming from various cities, and in order to meet their expenses they even sold their rings because of their passion for the preservation of the secular republic.
I do not think Eruygur's explanation means anything beyond teasing the public with such a meaningless response. I should also state that I found it odd the Americans would ask the ADD about their financial resources.
Normally this job falls within the authority of the related country's political leadership -- in democracies the sole authority that is accountable to the public on behalf of the state.
But one of the core problems of Turkey is the absence of accountability, transparency and good governance. Whether it is a military or civilian-related activity under the names of either foundations, associations or municipality activities, there is no strictly abided concept of accountability.
Therefore, as has been the case with retired Gen. Eruygur's response, the only answers you can get will, far from satisfying you, make you laugh with sorrow.
A point to note is that Gen. Eruygur's name was mentioned in the alleged diaries of former Navy Commander retired Adm. Özden Örnek, published in the now-closed newsweekly Nokta a few months ago. Here he was mentioned as one of the alleged architects of an aborted coup planned in 2004 against the ruling AK Party.
Eruygur's deputy at the ADD, Professor Dursun Ali Ercan, is also a familiar name for those involved in the Turkish defense industry. A professor of nuclear physics, Ercan served around four years as the undersecretary of the Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry (SSM), one of Turkey's two major arms procurement agencies, before he was replaced by Murad Bayar in early 2003.
Professor Ercan was a former captain before he retired from the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and a classmate of retired Gen. Eruygur; this close connection between the two allegedly made it possible for the latter to become an undersecretary. Now they also work together at the ADD.
As a journalist covering defense industry issues, I got to know Ercan well enough to witness during an interview his throwing a defense industry book into the trash simply because he himself allegedly distorted some of the figures in a comparison table published in the book.
When I asked him about the defense expenditure figures that he reportedly gave in the book, he responded by saying: "Forget about that book, they will all be destroyed and a new one will soon be published."
I did not want to believe that he cared so little about the fact that the expenses earmarked for the publication of the book about to be destroyed were financed by taxpayers.
He had attempted to mislead the public with the contents of the book but ultimately destroyed the work when warned by top bureaucrats at the SSM that he got the defense expenditure figures wrong and it would negatively impact the credibility of the SSM.
This incident happened I suppose in the early 2000s. Now we are in the year 2007 and this Professor Ercan is the deputy of the Ankara-based ADD, whose top boss is retired Gen. Eruygur.
This same association now attempts to deceive the public with nonsense like "selling their [gold] rings to generate resources."
Normally, whether it is the ADD or any other foundation or association, the political leadership of a country would have a mechanism to show the public in a transparent manner how such organizations generate income for their activities.
But in Turkey such things are left into the hands of such organizations themselves, who then act in ways that do not conform to democratic standards.
