Ergenekon likened to Watergate and ‘The Gulag Archipelago’

Named “Ergenekon and the Secret History of Turkey,” the analysis says a silent revolution is taking place in Turkey in terms of military-civilian relations. Stressing that sometimes the exposure of a hidden truth changes the course of history, the ESI argues that for the first time in Turkish history the struggle against the deep state has gained some ground. The analysis implicitly accuses some Turkish media organizations of being complicit while referring to many articles published in Today’s Zaman and commending daily Taraf for its reports on the Cage plan and the Action Plan to combat Reactionarism. “A culture of impunity thrives on secrecy and on complicit media and a passive civil society,” says the analysis, while labeling the Cage plan “chilling.”

“A White House tape, recording the US president six days after the Watergate break-in, sealed President Nixon’s fate, forcing his resignation within weeks. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s ‘The Gulag Archipelago,’ smuggled out of the USSR and published in 1973, shocked the world by describing the vast Soviet system of prison labor. Throughout history, those in power have kept secrets hidden from the public eye. But if it leads to a culture of impunity for crimes committed by the state, secrecy becomes dangerous,” says the analysis.

Both the European Commission and the European Parliament have called the Ergenekon investigation an opportunity for strengthening Turkish democracy and the rule of law in their annual reports.

The following are excerpts from the analysis:

“Recent weeks have seen the Turkish veil of secrecy drawn aside in a spectacular manner. Two documents have emerged which describe, in detail, operations planned by members of the Turkish armed forces to terrify, frame and even assassinate innocent civilians, Christians or Muslim students, and undermine the elected government.

“One document is called Cage Operation (Kafes) Action Plan. The other is the Action Plan to Combat Reaction -- Current Status. Each of these documents in itself, but even more so when read together, deals a serious blow to the credibility and legitimacy of the Turkish security structures. Both have come to light as a result of the current Ergenekon court case. The case has involved Istanbul prosecutors investigating a range of alleged crimes committed by groups linked to the Turkish security structures with the apparent intent to topple the elected government.

“An electronic copy of the Cage Plan was found -- encrypted -- on a CD seized in April 2009, when a former member of the Turkish Underwater Assault Team of the Naval Forces was arrested. A signed copy of the Action Plan was found during the arrest of another former military officer in June 2009. The Turkish General Staff immediately dismissed it as fake, a mere “piece of paper.” The chief of General Staff even alleged a conspiracy against the military. Then, in October 2009, a whistleblower within the General Staff sent the original signed copy of the Action Plan to a Turkish prosecutor, together with a letter explaining the role of the former deputy chief of the General Staff in drawing up the plan. This was made public on Oct. 24. The Cage Plan was made public on Nov. 19 in an article in the Taraf daily.

“The pro-European Turkish media, above all the Taraf daily, played a decisive role in uncovering and disseminating such information. Turkey’s minority representatives have also been speaking out. On Dec. 4 the Armenian weekly AGOS ran the headline ‘The Cage did not surprise us.’ The Armenian advisor to the Adalar mayor [the Princes islands near Istanbul] stated that ‘we experienced such incidents in Heybeliada, Kinaliada and Buyukada. We thought these were separate incidents, but when we saw the Cage plan, we understood that they were all part of a detailed plot.’ Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew told Zaman daily that dark forces planned to use minorities to overthrow the government, and that ‘it is a very satisfactory development that the Turkish police and the prosecutors have been revealing those dark plans so the responsible people are captured and tried.’

“The ongoing Ergenekon investigation will hopefully uncover the full genesis of these documents. Only a court of law can determine the guilt of any specific individual. But the debates surrounding documents are already changing Turkey. In July, a new law passed by the Turkish Parliament extended the power of civilian courts to try crimes committed by both former and active members of the military. And last week three retired four-star generals were for the first time interrogated by civilian prosecutors on alleged coup plots in 2003-2004.

The silent revolution in Turkish civil-military relations is in full swing.”