Dalan was also an angel of education

For me, the finding has just one simple message: Angels of education can well be conspirators of military coups in this country. Nobody can deny that Dalan, a former deputy in Parliament and a former mayor of İstanbul, was himself an angel of education. He has resisted leaving the US as he is still sought after by Ergenekon prosecutors. His explanation is obvious -- "inconvenient health conditions." He also has an explanation for the munitions found on his land. He claims, and he probably is right, that the land was used by the military as a training ground and that he and his people have not been able to come near the land for some time now. He may be sincere and correct in both of these explanations. But this possibility does not deny us the right to question why these munitions were buried in this particular place.

Let's be clear on one thing: Being a trustworthy, respectable person is one thing and being linked to an organization that wishes to overthrow the government through destabilization of the general population and encouragement of a military intervention is another. Dalan might have been an angel of education, but this does not make him unaccountable or free from responsibility before the laws of the country. The recent detentions in the Ergenekon case have been criticized by a certain media group on the grounds that the detainees were respectable intellectuals, former university presidents and education volunteers. A particular name, Professor Türkan Saylan, who was not actually detained, has been made a symbol of "purity and spotlessness" just because her house was searched and a few bags full of documents were taken for inspection.

I am not trying to underestimate the stress one may experience while his or her house is being searched by security forces. I am not trying to justify the actions of the prosecutor in detaining members of an educational charity. But what if the angelic education volunteers detained in the latest wave of the Ergenekon operation are no more innocent than another education angel, Dalan?

There is no established link between Dalan and the munitions found on the land that belongs to the foundation he chairs. The land may well have been used by unrelated third parties. The latest information says that six military officers, four of them still on active duty, have been detained in operations related to the munitions found on Dalan's land. As Dalan is already linked to the Ergenekon case, the news about the findings didn't come as a shock as great as the search of Saylan's house. Had the police conducted the dig before Dalan was named an Ergenekon suspect and his subsequent stay in the US, this would also have come as a shock. The same media group that supports Saylan to the point of turning her into an unquestionable Virgin Mary would probably back Dalan and criticize the prosecutor for barking up the wrong tree.

It is possible that Dalan will be cleared of all the prosecutor's accusations, but it is also possible that the prosecutor will find "buried textual ammunition" in the documents appropriated from Saylan's house and the offices of the charity she chairs. It is also possible that the prosecutor will uncover other unrelated criminal structures through the evidence he finds in these documents.

I personally prefer to see the least number of people being detained and questioned about the Ergenekon case. But I would also prefer to see the prosecutor do his job free of the pressure the opposition party leader has put on his shoulders. We may all decide that the prosecutor owes an apology to Professor Saylan, but in the end, we may also see that this particular media group owes a greater apology to the prosecutor.