Are there any Ergenekon disbelievers left?
by
İRFAN YILDIRIM*

Turkey reached the brink of escaping the military tutelage regime and becoming a civilian and democratic state of law after reform movements were launched, especially during the Bülent Ecevit coalition government, when European Union reforms started, and during the government of the AK Party, which became the sole ruling power after the Nov. 3, 2002 elections. The action plan, known as the Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism, is the most recent example of deviant attempts that find the constitutional national security regime insufficient and try to place politics and society under an ideological authoritarian administration. Now with the original copy of the plan out and the information that an investigation related to the document was prevented in the army, Turkey has entered a process where reforms to normalize and civilianize will be tested.

The fact that must not be forgotten is that the document is a product of Ergenekon. It remains fresh in people’s mind how the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HYSK) tried to interfere with the Ergenekon case during the summer months after a document seized in the office of a lawyer defending Ergenekon suspect retired Gen. Hurşit Tolon was published in the Taraf daily on June 12. Understanding the link between the document and the Ergenekon case increases the importance of the document because the document clearly reveals the aim to save the junta by manipulating the Ergenekon case and having the military and civilian judiciary do what the junta could not by launching psychological warfare using the military’s resources. In this respect, the junta in question targets both the military bureaucracy and the judicial bureaucracy and sees them as partners. The plan to use media and guided civil society organizations to implement this psychological warfare shows to which areas the organization has spread. According to the plan, alongside psychological warfare to be launched against the AK Party and Gülen movement the aim was to open lawsuits using false witnesses and fake evidence to convince the Constitutional Court to close the AK Party and a military court to condemn the Gülen movement as an armed terror organization. Some aspects of the plan clearly reveal that there was a new attempt to form a junta, which has become subject to increasingly harsh criticism from the public and politicians upon being exposed. Actually it was understood from the indictments and documents seized during the investigation into Ergenekon that there were plans to have auxiliary teams attempt to stage coups after the main figures failed to do it.

Now a whistleblower’s letter that has exposed the involvement of superior figures in the army and shows that the attempt that was interrupted by the discovery of a coup plan as part of the Ergenekon case was not limited to just the one colonel who prepared the document calls for a new investigation. It is essential that this new investigation expose Ergenekon’s backup team. Examining defective aspects of the previous investigation will help in locating the backup team.

The primary defective aspect is the military bureaucracy.

The General Staff headquarters issued an announcement after the whistleblower’s letter was published in the media. When we evaluate the General Staff’s announcement, which heralds the start of a new investigation and deals with the publication of the document and not the document itself, it is clear that the military judiciary will not have a legal and conscientious role when looking into the matter. The military judiciary is not in a position to ask questions but to be asked questions and to be debated.

The military judiciary is not independent and under the best of conditions lacks the ability to probe junta activities. The army must apologize to society for the material and moral damage caused by its members involved in coups, coup threats and junta activities. Alongside this apology, every member of the military bureaucracy that engaged in illegal activities must stand trial and all natural and legal persons that were harmed by these activities must be compensated for their damages.

Those charged with junta work promoted

Secondly, the General Staff should stop making statements on behalf of the Military Prosecutor’s Office and should immediately launch an administrative investigation into the matter and suspend those involved from their offices for the sake of the investigation. But this will not be sufficient, because the chief of general staff and the Supreme Military Council (YAŞ) promoted all officers who are being tried or investigation in connection with the Ergenekon investigation and disclosed in a move that contradicted conventions that the colonel who allegedly prepared the document in question was not promoted due to the lack of a staff position for him. Apart from this, First Army Commander Gen. Hasan Iğsız, who, according to the last letter of notice, allegedly ordered the preparation of the document in question, had made it clear that as the deputy chief of general staff, they would afford ultimate protection to the colonel who prepared the document. The abnormal procedures observed in the release of the colonel who prepared the document and of some retired military officers give the impression that the military bureaucracy is interfering with the judges and prosecutors conducting the Ergenekon trial. Thirdly, in this regard, the General Staff must suspend from office all of its personnel who are indicted and on trial under the Ergenekon investigation.

Even if the General Staff does what it must do, the government, as the authority having administrative and political responsibility in this regard, should not only probe how the document was prepared but also launch an administrative investigation regarding those who allegedly attempted to block the investigation and the military officers who are being tried at the Ergenekon trial and those who allegedly have ties with Ergenekon. If there are legal obstacles, necessary reforms must be immediately made to remove them.

Debates on the document may distract attention from the Ergenekon trial

The second problem concerning the first investigation launched concerning the document in question occurred with the judicial bureaucracy. The guarantees provided by universal law and the Constitution to the judges and prosecutors running the Ergenekon investigation are being threatened by the HSYK and the Council of State. The general public is deeply concerned that while everyone focuses on the document, some are planning to make moves to undermine the Ergenekon trial. As we can understand from the indictments of the Ergenekon trial and the “Action Plan to Finish the AK Party and [Fethullah] Gülen,” one of the main domains of activity of the Ergenekon network is the judiciary. The fact that the Ergenekon network and all sorts of pro-junta groups can easily ally with the judiciary is proof of the gravity of the problematic structure of the judiciary. Thus, it is clear that what must be done with the judiciary in the first instance is to purge and try all the members of the judiciary who cooperate with Ergenekon. Then or simultaneously with this process of cleaning, the HSYK and the Constitutional Court as well as the Supreme Court of Appeals and the Council of State and all the other judicial organs must be restructured to be in compliance with the universal principles of law based on EU standards. As the recent scandals sufficiently proved that judicial independence is meaningless if the judiciary is not impartial, the members of the judiciary who are no longer impartial must be immediately removed from office.

Ergenekon: deeper and higher

Emerging information and documents in the letter should have shown once more to the general public, the legislature, the executive branch and the judiciary that the extensions of the Ergenekon network are considerably dangerous. Thus, the judges and prosecutors conducting the Ergenekon investigation must make a strong move to show that they are not afraid of these intimidations and threats. The investigation should not wane, but go deeper and higher. The key to success is to touch those who are seemingly untouchable. Only in this way will the courage of the citizens who have awareness of the civil and democratic rule of law increase, as seen in the last letter. The government and the general public must back the judges and prosecutors running the Ergenekon investigation and make sure that justice is done. Any progress made in the Ergenekon trial will not only boost democratization and normalization but also encourage those who intend to lend support to it.