The serial killer’s wife, Alevis and confrontation
by
ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ

I remember the woman’s response drew me into deep thought. Did she really not suspect anything about her husband? If she did not, why did she say the pieces were coming together? That means the pieces were not in place. Who knows, maybe there were many signs that could have been picked up on. The man had killed hundreds over 20 years. His wife must have seen a blood stain when doing the laundry or maybe she saw something unusual when looking inside his toolbox. There were probably many signs she could have noticed, like how every time her husband came home late, there was a story in the local newspaper about another dead body being found, and how some neighbors, who the man didn’t like, went missing after a certain while. Maybe there were very clear clues.

But I believe the woman; she probably “never suspected” anything. A person can fail to see something if he is not prepared for it. He can easily “manage” to not see a reality if that something is going to disturb him or ruin his life. The story I mentioned above is a “crystallized” example of this. How is it possible for a person not to notice things that are happening in front him?

The majority of the “modern” and “secular” wing in Turkey is among those who are “Ergenekon blind.” From this perspective, the new attitude that some Alevis developed after the launch of the Ergenekon case is both very meaningful and positive. Ergenekon had plans to assassinate some Alevi figures so as to create a chaotic atmosphere in Turkey. After Alevi leaders were shown the assassination plans targeting them, we saw some Alevis radically change their discourse. In an announcement he made after an Ergenekon prosecutor showed him the assassination plans against him, Alevi-Bektaşi Federation President Ali Balkız said: “In the documents, I saw a photograph of my house, a blueprint of it, the routes to and from my house and the names of nine people who would supply, plant and detonate the explosives. At that moment, I recalled the murders of Uğur Mumcu, Necip Hablemitoğlu and Bahriye Üçok by secret forces.”

The point I cared about the most was Balkız’s reference to Turkey’s past. Balkız basically said that after seeing Ergenekon’s assassination plan, the pieces of the puzzle started falling to pieces. Seeing a murder plan brought down all guards and enabled a sort of inner enlightenment. This means that until now the pieces weren’t fitting together; even if he doesn’t want to admit it, he actually had some indistinct suspicions in the back of his mind.

Why doesn’t the Turkish Republic, which claims to be secular, give us Alevis full rights? If this republic is looking for secular citizens, is there a better example than us? No matter what we do, why can’t we become respected citizens? Why are there always traces of the deep state in provocations carried out against us? Who knows what kind of other questions like these were being asked in the minds of the Alevis or, more precisely, in their subconscious? They were probably not allowing these questions to rise to the conscious level. But Balkız’s recollection of the Mumcu and Hablemitoğlu murders (murders always perceived to be assassinations carried out by Islamists because the victims were leading defenders of secularism) after seeing the assassination plan against himself shows that he always had these kinds of questions and their answers floating around somewhere in his head. Like the serial killer’s wife, Balkız began to look at his past in a different way in light of new information he learned, bringing change to the way he understood the world. The pieces of the puzzle started falling into place.

There are some sudden moments in life when you let your guard down. The pain that is encountered abruptly overcomes the pain of having lost your identity and the artificial convenience and comfort of not noticing. It is at these moments that you start to read your entire life and past differently. I assure you that if some of the Ergenekon defendants in the media and politics were to come across an assassination plan targeting themselves and their children, we would see them instantly change their discourse. The strange part is that nobody’s life is safe in this country as long as an organization like Ergenekon continues to exist. Everyone who defends Ergenekon today could become a victim of the organization tomorrow for the purpose of provocation. But until they encounter a painful reality, like the Alevis, many people will continue to say that they don’t believe in Ergenekon, because accepting its existence threatens their feeling of identity. The existence of Ergenekon suggests that concepts such as “modern,” “contemporary,” “patriotic” and “secular” could be tragically devoid of meaning and have been used to cover up many dark and dirty activities. Ergenekon urges us to question Turkey’s history.

For some, the Ergenekon case means losing an unquestionable feeling of superiority, a class and a status. Confronting Ergenekon means having to equally share a home with the “reactionary Muslim”; it means accepting that “non-Muslims” who were always seen as a cause of trouble were the biggest victims in this country; it means realizing that by abandoning the Ottoman multi-identity structure, we were dragged into a racist and chauvinist structure; and many other things. It is for all of these reasons that “confronting” is uncomfortable, defying, troubling and disturbing. It is because of these reasons that they prefer to not see the bones found in wells and the bombs collected from under the ground and other places and to not hear “the things that are being said.” Otherwise, the pieces will fall into place and the truth will come out. In an instant, Turkey’s history will flash before their eyes like a movie and the fake identities they established will be destroyed.