Yet, what we saw is that this Encümen-i Daniş, or Consultation Council, is not an ordinary civil society organization. Although its members are rather old in years, it is not a sort of council of elders. They have gathered together to discuss various issues, which is OK. But this is not all that they did. They have also prepared reports and sent these to presidents and prime ministers. Most importantly, the proposals in a letter they sent to former President Süleyman Demirel in 1994 were copied in the infamous Feb. 28 decisions three years later.
What is the connection between the Ergenekon criminal network and the Encümen-i Daniş? One of the most important members of this council, retired Chief of General Staff Gen. Hüseyin Kıvrıkoğlu, is frequently rumored to be the top figure in the Ergenekon criminal network. Workers’ Party (İP) leader Doğu Perinçek, an important defendant in the Ergenekon trial, said the other day, “The ‘number one’ [leader] is not İsmail Hakkı Karadayı, but Hüseyin Kıvrıkoğlu.” It is not easy to discern whether this disclosure was intended to distract or intimidate or to give a message to someone. On the day Perinçek made this disclosure, Kıvrıkoğlu paid a visit to current Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ.
Referring to retired Brig. Gen. Veli Küçük, Karadayı and Kıvrıkoğlu had denied knowing “that guy” or claimed, “I don’t know how he used my name in the transfer of shares of the Cumhuriyet newspaper,” which was very confusing. In return, Küçük said, “I worked under your command, and I am not that guy.” Indeed, while commanders tend to know even noncommissioned officers so closely that they could say, “I know them; they are good boys,” how could one explain how Karadayı does not know a gendarmerie general except for memory loss?
Felice Casson, the Italian prosecutor who investigated the Gladio case, which uncovered criminal networks within the Italian state and brought their civilian leaders to justice, makes one important point insistently clear: “The Gladio is masterminded by the members of the P2 Masonic lodge.” Casson spoke to Ali İhsan Aydın on Monday in an interview published in the Zaman daily. When he was asked, “Were there members of the top judiciary in your operation against Gladio?” he said: “Yes. In particular, with respect to the Propaganda Due (P2) Masonic lodge. Top judicial officials from Rome and Florence were found to be involved in the network.”
As one reads the statements by Casson, one can easily see the striking similarity between the Gladio network and the Ergenekon network. Thus, one is inclined to ask, “If Gladio is masterminded by Masons, can’t this also be the case for Ergenekon?” In particular, after one finds out that the Encümen-i Daniş fought fiercely against the headscarf, imam hatip schools and Quran courses, one becomes even more suspicious. As you might recall, after Parliament passed the constitutional amendments that lifted the ban on the headscarf and the Republican People’s Party (CHP) applied to the Constitutional Court to have them annulled, the French Masonic lodge stepped in. Like the Encümen-i Daniş, they sent letters to influential groups in Turkey. Yet their letters were not secret, but fully open.
This was covered in Aydın’s report on Feb. 16, 2008, in Zaman, with the title “Headscarf fatwas from French Masons.” The oldest and largest Masonic lodge in continental Europe, the Grand Orient, discussed the Turkish Parliament’s move in its meeting in Paris. French Grandmaster Jean-Michel Quillardet described the headscarf move as “backpedaling” and a “dangerous hole toward the redefinition of Turkish secularism.” Quillardet argued that the headscarf was not an Islamic command, not referred to in the Quran, but manufactured afterward. He also stressed that they had close dialogue with Masons in Turkey.
I would like to make a request from the public authorities. Have there been Masons among the members of the Encümen-i Daniş since its establishment? If so, who are they?
As citizens of this country, we are entitled to know this. If democracy is a transparent regime and if transparency applies to everyone, and if Masonry is not a clandestine network, then this question must be answered.
