The following tale puts the latest events in Turkey into a proper frame in relation to some top state authorities. Once upon a time, in a kingdom, the crown prince led a very permissive life and there remained no wrong nor offense he had not committed. At one stage in his life, seeing the possible moral and legal complications of what he had done for himself and the kingdom, he became repentant and willing to pay for the consequences of his actions. He stood in front of his father and the courtiers and asked for a fair trial. The king interrupted, saying: "Son, relax and stop talking nonsense! All the regulations, courts and law are for the commoners, the ordinary people, not for us!"
Let's flash back to reality then.
Following the 1980 military coup, Ahmet Necdet Sezer was promoted by the junta to the Supreme Court of Appeals. The leader of the coup, Gen. Kenan Evren, later appointed Sezer to the Constitutional Court. During Sezer's office in the Constitutional Court, Turkey saw the escalation of conflict in the Southeast, the declaration of emergency rule and a systematic campaign of terror aided by right and left-wing bands of gangsters and death squads operating with the acquiescence of some state and military authorities, who are now defendants in the ongoing Ergenekon trial. In 1994, when the Democracy Party (DEP) elected Kurdish representatives from southeastern Turkey they were sent to prison and their party was banned. Sezer never objected to these actions.
Later Sezer became the 10th president of the Turkish Republic, serving between 2000 and 2007. On taking over the presidency, he said, "I shall do all I can to protect national unity, defend secularism and achieve the distribution of wealth." His particular way of pursuing all these aims got him in trouble in the past, and, it seems, will get him into trouble again in the future.
First, Sezer was the person who threw the constitutional code book at Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit. His action caused "Black Wednesday," the economic crisis that shrank the Turkish economy by a mammoth 10 percent. The central bank sold $5 billon on the day of the argument alone just to stabilize the plunging market. It didn't work. Thousands lost their jobs and hundreds of thousands saw their savings evaporate. Ecevit and his coalition partners were all eventually voted out of Parliament, but President Sezer remained in his position as the old guard of the system.
People started to call for a more democratic, open, liberal and humane public regime. They were asking Sezer, who was presented as a promising leader, to translate the nation's enduring values, potentialities and aspirations into a form that could be meaningfully articulated in the present conditions and carried forward into the future. However, President Sezer did not merely disappoint the people; he proved to be the staunchest protector of the status quo and, through his continual vetoes and unilateral actions against the government and Parliament, a most vigorous opponent of efforts for modernization and accession to the European Union.
During his time in office, Sezer vetoed laws, amendments and appointments by the government -- more than any of his predecessors. Now we are coming to learn to what extent Sezer, as a stubborn, inflexible bureaucrat, disliked the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government and its policies. He claimed to be using the state's founding principles as his guide, but now few could argue that Sezer played by the book, particularly after revelations of his meetings with coup planners and conspirators.
On many occasions he openly said the state, the republican system and the secular regime in Turkey were being threatened, but he never gave any specific reasons or evidence. He flagrantly discriminated and excluded state authorities' and legislators' wives who wore the headscarf from official receptions. During his presidency he pardoned 260 convicted felons -- leftist militants, 202 of whom were later caught again in further terrorist acts.
Now we are learning the details of how he met and advised and was informed, advised and consulted by the accused in the ongoing Ergenekon case within the presidential palace at least a dozen times. How could he conduct such meetings tête-à-tête with such schemers and plotters without presidential advisers, officers or bureaucrats and against the Constitution? Is there no law or judge to question those implicated, who acted against the regulations of the presidential palace in such schemes against the government, Parliament, democracy and the Constitution?
Hearing from an accused general in the Ergenekon case who said, "Who do they, the chiefs of the security forces, governors and judges, think they are? How can they arrest and prosecute us? Who are they?" I can now hear some say, "Son, give up. Don't waste your energy. All those regulations and laws are for the commoners, the ordinary people, not for the oligarchic minority!"
