The fact that the circles against the Ergenekon case succeeded in creating press heroes out of pro-coup journalists is unbelievable. Now everybody seems to have forgotten what Mustafa Balbay said to turn retired Gen. Şener Eruygur and his team against former Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Özkök. Let’s remember what he said. “It is really hard for you to achieve what you have in mind as long as the number one [Hilmi Özkök] keeps the post [of chief of General Staff]. … You are all right; all force commanders are all right. You create a team; however, you cannot succeed if your senior [the chief of General Staff] is not in line with you. We need to do something about this first.” I really wonder what foreign press outlets that keep writing about how journalists in Turkey are being judged because of their thoughts would think if they knew about this view on Balbay. What if they heard that the person who uttered these words became a deputy of a social democrat party in the country?
If the octopus named Ergenekon survives. If it goes back to its dark world to heal its wounds and gather its strength again after surviving this blow that is the cases against Ergenekon with little damage just as we are so close to taking it completely out of its hole with all its tentacles and head. ... The ones who would be primarily responsible for this would be those same ones who currently keep repeating the chorus that the regime in Turkey has turned into a very dark dictatorship that persecutes opposing journalists and jails them and where nobody dares to open their mouths because an empire of fear has been established.
We are facing a new psychological operation and the only hope for the deep state to survive is this chorus. When the detentions first started, Ergenekon suspects called on their previous comrades in arms. Even recently they hoped that the General Staff would roar again and force back civil will and the judiciary by frightening them. But this resulted in disappointment. When that failed, they focused on rebutting the indictment in legal terms. They tried to exaggerate some mistakes they found in the judgment process, but there was so much evidence and so many documents and witnesses that it didn’t take much time for them to understand they could not achieve their goal of having the Ergenekon case dropped through a legal battle. At that point, they began their current psychological operation to discredit the Ergenekon probe and attack the Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
If they had been able to convince everybody that the AK Party government had turned into a single-party dictatorship, they could have joined the opposition that would have risen against this dictatorship and could have become the aggrieved ones who were oppressed by the AK Party dictatorship. They have been trying to bring this about for a long time. Instead of telling the old story that the AK Party will bring Shariah law, which they put forward once upon a time to stage a military coup they could not achieve, they are now telling another story by claiming the AK Party is establishing a dictatorship.
As a matter of fact, the number of leftists, democrats, social democrats, “romantic socialists,” former Marxists and supposed liberals who support the cause of Ergenekon defenders isn’t few by any means. They either tell new frightening stories or propagate existing frightening stories because some of them are unaware of the agenda of the Ergenekon defenders. Some think being an intellectual requires opposing the government, some have not been able to tolerate the judgment of generals since the beginning, some have disliked the AK Party from the very birth of the party and some are worried that the system is turning upside down under the rule of the AK Party and they are afraid of losing their social status.
You may remember that the same frightening stories were told about the Democrat Party (DP), too. There are still people in this country who believe the story that the late Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and his friends brought to Turkey “a fascist dictatorship” and maybe there are even those who believe Menderes processed youths in a meat grinder. Actually, inferring that the government headed by Menderes was a fascist dictatorship because of some the mistakes made by that government is as unrealistic and absurd as suggesting the AK Party government represents a single-party dictatorship or an empire of fear due to some of its faults and weaknesses. However, having a pair of eyes isn’t enough to see the truth. Those eyes cannot have gone blind due to ideology, political ambitions or unquestioned prejudices. As for the ones who can see the truth, today more than ever they need the courage to stand against the current.
* This article appeared in the Bugün daily on Feb. 4, 2011, in Turkish.
