Some figures who give the impression of being extremely sensitive with respect to Gladio, the deep state, gangs, coups and similar issues, have turned out to be the opposite of what they preach. Those who have boldly fought gangs and military coups are not criticizing the Ergenekon probe by likening it to the practices seen in the periods of military coup.An action undertaken within the legal framework and through judicial mechanisms is being compared to methods used for coups. To equate an operation requested by a prosecutor based on concrete evidence and approved by a court of law to an arbitrary order by a coup general is not a well-intentioned approach. A person's reflex to defend his/her relatives or friends is perfectly comprehensible. By nature, people tend to see their loved ones as innocent. However, I don't think the current developments can be explained with such an analysis. We need more in-depth analyses.
Until now, any reference to gangs within the state would call rightists and the police department to mind. One would consider it natural for rightists, who are seen as natural allies of the state, to establish criminal organizations that purport work in the interest of the state. Indeed, the network of relations unexpectedly unearthed by the Susurluk scandal showed that these claims were not unfounded at all.
In the Susurluk process, groups that described themselves as rightists and that were organized within the state, particularly in the police department, were purged. The uncorrupted hands within the police department played a great role in this purge. Although there were many questions about the whereabouts of the "left hand" of this organization at that time, no satisfactory answer to these questions could be found. As the silhouette of the Ergenekon terrorist organization becomes more and more recognizable, new questions have emerged. Now, we can talk about the left hand of the gang within the state.
From the start, the left felt itself closer to the military in the state bureaucracy. Perhaps, the division was in this manner: the right to the police and the left to the military. It is dubious whether the left has moved closer to the military or the military has tried to recruit the left. What is certain is that a relation exists between the left and the military in a similar fashion to the relation that exists between the right and the police. Today we can observe that the military has institutionally shown the determination to "eliminate the rotten core" as the police department once did. Criticism voiced with the presumed perplexity of the question, "How can they be taken from military quarters?" will not change this determination. The statement issued by the General Staff has clearly demonstrated this stance.
Those who listened to the speech Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal made at his party's parliamentary group meeting were taken 10 years back in time. The similarity between the statement made 10 years ago by True Path Party (DYP) leader Tansu Çiller in which she said, "Those who pull the trigger for the state and who die for the state are all dignified," and the one made by Baykal in which he defended those detained in the Ergenekon operation and claimed that the judiciary has become a toy of politics, is striking.
Baykal said: "If this picture was the result of a natural course of a legal investigation, a judicial examination, a judicial process, done purely at the judicial authorities' own initiative, then everyone would respect it. But the society has great doubts about it. These doubts are the result of concerns that the current process is being transformed from a judicial process to a process of political confrontation."
Former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan had said while in office that the Susurluk case was "nonsense" and Baykal's current stance is no different from his. Before the military coup of Sept. 12, 1980, then-Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel had said, "No one can make me say that the rightists, too, kill men." To these, the words of the journalists who say that they are "beginning to lose faith in the law" should be added. Perhaps, this is the reason why those who tended to make bold statements during the Susurluk scandal are now so silent. Unless we stop supporting the "criminals who are from among us" we cannot reach our goals.
