I am truly saddened as a human being and as a journalist. As a person, I would not want to see anybody jailed; as a journalist, I do not want to see that one of my colleagues faces such charges. This should be all I say in light of the judicial process and subsequent decisions. It is not true that the journalists working for Cumhuriyet rely on a defensive psychology. This is similar to the mindset of former politicians who said, "You cannot possibly make me say that right-wingers killed men." We can see the support of the Doğan Media Group as an attempt to create some sort of solidarity among victims, but people may see this as the solidarity of Ergenekon, so it is a risky move. Actions that will affect a fair trial should also be avoided. Journalists will have difficulty in explaining how their actions differ from Gen. Galip Mendi paying a visit to Hurşit Tolon and Şener Eruygur in jail.It is not logical to declare Balbay a hero or a victim without actually seeing the documents or information held by the court that led to the issuing of an arrest warrant against him. Balbay is not facing this treatment because of what he has written in his column; he is being accused of being part of a process that will culminate in a coup. We all know what was done to take the country to the brink of a coup in the past. We are all witnesses to the blood spilled to further these conditions. The prosecutors of the Ergenekon investigation argue that they have found evidence pointing to the attempts for such a coup. Their application was admitted by the relevant court because they found it satisfactory; subsequently, the trial process began, and a number of arrest warrants have been issued. Balbay, who is being presented as a hero, is actually accused of undermining the democratic process. There is no reasonable explanation for declaring him a hero and treating him as if he is like author Fikret Başkaya despite these facts. Besides it should be recalled that the same attitude has not been seen with respect to Başkaya's time in jail. Likewise, nobody raised their voice against the court decision convicting Yeni Asya daily's columnist Faruk Çakır for what he wrote in his column.
The first thing that crosses my mind about Balbay is the headline "Young military officers are uneasy." It was a report that left indelible marks on our near past, and it was condemned by the then-Chief of General Staff Hilmi Özkök, who was compared to Rüştü Erdelhun, the chief of general staff during the May 27 coup. The headline was actually an intimidation because Erdelhun was prosecuted by the coup regime. Özkök said about the headline: "It will be a grave statement, but I condemn it. This report is against the Turkish military as well as the Turkish nation." It is hard to understand the present day without recalling the past.
I would like to conclude my column by quoting from the rising star of the Turkish press, Sivilay Abla from the Taraf daily. In her response to a reader's question, which was "Newspapers and TV are talking about a civilian coup in Turkey; what would you say about this?" -- she said: "Hi -- let us say that this is a civilian coup. The papers run headlines criticizing the stagers of the civilian coups. They host whomever they want to criticize the civilian coups. Caricature magazines publish their caricatures to mock them. There are legal options to object to tax fines. Defendants are allowed to defend themselves in the courtroom. Lawyers even have the chance to manipulate society. Defendants are given the right to appeal the court's decision and even take the decision to the European Court of Human Rights. As an ordinary citizen, you can ask whether they are pro-coup actors. So I would like to recall that none of this was possible on May 27, March 12, Sept. 12 and even Feb 28. If a civilian kind of coup is like this, it means that this country will be a pretty improved one when we have a civilian constitution."
