When will prosecutors investigate Ergenekon’s anti-Christian activities?
by
ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ

“Sevgi Erenol, who is the spokesperson of [the Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate] TOP [which is a fake church established to fight against the Ecumenical Patriarchate] and who is in prison now in connection with the Ergenekon case, regularly gave briefings to top officials about the ‘missionary threat’ in Turkey.

“Kemal Kerinçsiz, an ultranationalist lawyer who was suing liberal intellectuals for ‘insulting Turkishness’ and who provoked public opinion against Hrant Dink, has also brought cases against missionaries before the domestic courts. Ergün Poyraz, who is apparently responsible for Ergenekon’s propaganda war and who wrote many books about Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President Abdullah Gül, accusing them [of] having non-Muslim roots, has also published a hate-mongering book titled ‘Six Months Amongst Missionaries.’ This latter book became the bible of the war against Protestants in Turkey. We now know from the Ergenekon file that Mr. Poyraz was actively using the archives of the gendarmerie.

“The Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO) also used to publish regular paranoid reports about missionary activities. These ‘reports’ were taken very seriously by the National Security Council (MGK), which is dominated by generals, and those reports led the MGK to declare that missionary activities were a real threat to national security in Turkey. Sinan Aygün, the chairman of the ATO since 1998, is now one of the suspects in the Ergenekon case.”

Unfortunately, prosecutors handling the Ergenekon case have not cracked down on these connections. Likewise, the blacklists developed by Ergenekon regarding Christians -- which I will explain below -- were never investigated either.

The Ergenekon indictment’s annexes include a series of reports titled “Summary of Daily Intelligence of Aegean Army Intelligence Department.” These reports show that activities and events in churches across Turkey were closely monitored. The reports contain detailed blacklists and intelligence reports on almost all Christian groups in Turkey.

But the most striking aspect is that Christians were attacked in all of the provinces that were subject to careful scrutiny in the reports. Let us recall these attacks: The Dirili Protestant Church was attacked in January 2005; a hand grenade was found on the roof of the Greek Patriarchate in February 2005. The Antalya Aziz Pavlus Church was set on fire in April 2005. Christian workers of a clothing store were attacked in August 2005. A land mine exploded on a road after a vehicle carrying a Syriac bishop passed by in August 2005. The leader of the Adana Protestant Church, Kamil Kıroğlu, was brutally beaten in January 2006. Father Andrea Santora was killed in Trabzon in February 2006. Members of the Mersin Catholic Church were threatened with knives in March 2006. The Syriac Church in Diyarbakır was raided and members were threatened in April 2006. The Orthodox community in Bergama was protested and not allowed to perform their service in May 2006. The Protestant church in Ödemiş was attacked with Molotov cocktails in November 2006. Priest Francois Rene Brunissen was stabbed in January 2006. Three Christian missioners were slain in April 2007. Priest Adriano Franchini was stabbed in İzmir in December 2007.

This list does not include death threats that churches and their leaders constantly receive. All these attacks happened in provinces that were mentioned in the “blacklists.” Attacks against Christians have virtually stopped ever since the Ergenekon case began.

The Ergenekon case is constantly criticized for having a broad scope. But as you can see from the statements above, the Ergenekon organization has some activities that have not been investigated at all. Investigating the connections mentioned above will help in getting rid of the deep state once and for all.

The Ergenekon investigation has enabled non-Muslims in Turkey to find some peace, albeit a little. An in-depth investigation into these activities of the organization will help expose all dimensions of the extermination campaign the deep state was employing against non-Muslims and pave the way for democracy in Turkey.

The fact that prosecutors have not pursued these connections so far is a grave shortcoming for the Ergenekon case. It is a big mistake that the Ergenekon case is only focused on the claims of coup plans against the government. I suspect this mistake will be rectified.