Blow to solidarity among Ergenekon supporters

Several days ago, I was chatting with an old friend of mine in Yalova. He is about 10 years older than me. He has been a fan of the Justice Party's (AP) politics since I first met him. He is a very loyal party supporter. The Ergenekon investigation has impressed him greatly. "This trial has been an eye opener for us," he says. "We realized that for many years we have followed the footsteps of these guys," he says. "We believed in this [Süleyman] Demirel," he says. "We thought he was a victim of military coups. But in reality, he was cooperating with the bad guys, encouraging them. We are learning these facts today," he says. He is not speaking with the regret of being deceived. Rather, he feels the happiness of telling the truth. We can say big benefits have already emerged from the Ergenekon investigation. It has clearly exposed the real character of the so-called hypocritical intellectuals who declare that they are against military coups, but who in reality have supported coups for years, and of the civilians who longed to secure positions in the government. This investigation has accelerated the process through which people's democratic awareness is raised. It has shown that the real struggle in Turkey is between groups seeking democracy and those who support the status quo. It has clearly exposed who really favors freedoms and who is really sycophantic toward the military guardianship. No other incident in this country could have exposed these hypocrisies in such an efficient manner.

For the last 10 days, we have watched or listened to the great display of the latest trick of solidarity among Ergenekon supporters. The 12th wave of operations against Ergenekon gave them the opportunity to incite people's feelings of pity over Türkan Saylan and Mehmet Haberal, and this was a chance they had awaited for months. With the happiness of having finally found the material they had been searching for, they took the stage in order to discredit and obscure the Ergenekon investigation, to exert pressure on prosecutors and judges, to confuse people's minds and to depict the trial as politically motivated. But for whatever reason, they are all mute with respect the newly discovered arsenals. For instance, Mr. Demirel, Mr. Baykal and other respected media figures have not said a single word about the weapons and ammunitions that have been discovered.

There is also the court's decision to merge the Council of State attack trial with the Ergenekon trial upon a demand by the Supreme Court of Appeals. Please recall what former President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Mr. Baykal, the editors-in-chief of certain media organizations, their chief columnists and the authors who regard themselves as real possessors of the republic said about that attack. They said the assailant was a "solider of God" who committed the crime for the sake of the headscarf. They said this attack had shown the great danger secularism was facing. They had incited people who support secularism to take action. They said the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government must restrain itself, etc. They repeated the well-known litany. What happens now? We found out that the assailant was in reality a "soldier of Ergenekon." Even his father has started to say: "Yes, my son was used by Ergenekon. They drugged and hypnotized him."

Mr. Baykal, we must ask you these questions as the representative of the solidarity among the friends of Ergenekon: What do you think about the merger of the Council of State attack with the Ergenekon trial? What are your comments on the newly discovered arsenals? What do you say about the failure to shed light on the inexplicable murders of thousands of people?