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HÜSEYİN GÜLERCE h.gulerce@todayszaman.com Columnists

Why have Ergenekon supporters lost?


Turkey is changing with one initiative after another, but also, it is growing more stronger with the move toward what we really deserve.

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Today, we cannot say we are in a position that we really deserve. Given our people, our potential, our own dynamics, this is not the position we really deserve. Did we deserve to be a nation that is going through the ordeal of promoting democracy or that is trying to make progress despite the inhuman and unethical shackles affixed to our feet by the official ideology? Did we deserve to be a society which an outdated guardianship system and its powerful, authoritarian and thickheaded men are trying to shape?

Now, what has happened that has made us remove our shackles, break way from the stereotype of the official ideology, withstand the psychological warfare and walk with determination on a road that leads to democracy, human rights, freedom and the rule of law in a never-to-return quest?

Every era, every ideology and every ideology has a lifespan, a period of validity. The Kemalist ideology of ours, too, has a lifespan. As freedoms expand and as society grows more conscious, the guardianship system contracts and exhausts itself. It withdraws into its own world and it manufactures tensions for Turkey. This is what the resistance of the military and the judicial bureaucracy to democratization implies. What other explanation can be offered for the efforts to engage in politics at the highest level and to set a judicial trap for every democratic move and try to close down a ruling party that is democratically elected on the one hand and to pretend to hold democracy in high esteem on the other hand?

So, what has changed to make us tread on a never-to-return road with determination?

It is because the official ideology, i.e. the status quo, has lost the war. The most important factor in this is that the media that tends to act as the manipulative tool, triggerman and bully for the guardianship system has weakened. In no other country are media organizations as corrupt as they are in our country. Yes, the media organizations were dominated and deprived of diversity by fascist regimes, but there were no media organizations like ours which would claim to promote the freedom of the press or the professional principles of journalism, while at the same time attacking all freedoms in the name of state policies and protection of the status quo. I don't want to list their undignified, unprincipled, shameful stances during the Feb. 28 process. Now, these media organizations are no longer the most powerful weapons of psychological warfare. Now, there are alternative media organizations, which they accuse of being “pro-government” out of rage. But we should ask: to whom have they been supporting all these years? While you were intimidating the people, suppressing and destroying your rivals, manipulating governments, threatening ministers with your headlines, dropping or establishing governments, who were you supporting? Your good old days will never come back.

So, what has changed now that we are treading on a never-to-return road with determination?

The Ergenekon file was opened. All the dirt, the nasty structures, the bloody murders, the unresolved inexplicable murders, the plots and the provocations were revealed. They are now so manifest that it is no longer possible to sweep them under the rug as was done in Susurluk. Concealing them is no longer possible. No magician can perform some hocus pocus and send those Light Anti-tank Weapons (LAWs), those assassin's guns, the hundreds of thousands of bullets, hand grenades and explosives out of existence. That game is over, too. There is no turning back from it either.

So, what has changed now that we are treading on a never-to-return road with determination?

There is now a will in the general population that cannot be daunted by the threats of the pro-guardianship people. There is a prime minister that promises to earn the trust the nation has in him and who says "life is full of risks." There is a society that is getting more and more conscious. There is the deep Turkey that seeks the unity of hearts.

This Turkey does not want to see conflicts. It seeks respect for democracy and its values. The people in this country who demand democracy, rule of law, welfare and freedom are not seeking revenge. We just want to have what we should already have. Stop trying to cast this society into your molds because these lands are no longer suitable for this and because the world is no longer suitable for it.

18 September 2009, Friday
HÜSEYİN GÜLERCE
   
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Other Articles of the Columnist

  Why have Ergenekon supporters lost?
  Kurdish issue will be solved by Turks’ collective conscience
  When you look at the initiative from Diyarbakir…
  A judiciary seeking to function like the military
  Ertuğrul Özkök’s umrah
  Let us not push the tired one uphill
  What did you do to our henna-adorned soldiers, lieutenant?
  Initiative can’t progress with those unable to hold their tongue
  Who will come, who will go?
  They have arrived and the wait is over
  Did Erdoğan outpace Özal?
  CHP and MHP hand in hand on dangerous path
  Kurdish initiative: I am concerned about provocations
  Springtime ahead for Turkey
  Pro-guardianship bulls of Turkey
  Özkök will win, not Baykal
  Three men are creating history
  Avcı: Striking at Ergenekon through JİTEM
  Will the biggest resistance come from the high judiciary?
  CHP is committing suicide in live broadcast
Columnists
ABDULHAMİT BİLİCİ
ABDULLAH BOZKURT
ALİ BULAÇ
ALİ H. ASLAN
AMANDA PAUL
ANDREW FINKEL
ASIM ERDİLEK
AYŞE KARABAT
BEJAN MATUR
BERİL DEDEOĞLU
BERK ÇEKTİR
BÜLENT KENEŞ
BÜLENT KORUCU
CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON
DOĞU ERGİL
EKREM DUMANLI
EMRE USLU
ETYEN MAHÇUPYAN
FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK
FİKRET ERTAN
GÜRKAN ZENGİN
HASAN KANBOLAT
HÜSEYİN GÜLERCE
İBRAHİM KALIN
İBRAHİM ÖZTÜRK
İHSAN DAĞI
İHSAN YILMAZ
KATHY HAMILTON
KERİM BALCI
KLAUS JURGENS
LALE KEMAL
MEHMET KAMIŞ
MICHAEL KUSER
MUHAMMED ÇETİN
MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE
NICOLE POPE
ÖMER TAŞPINAR
ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ
PAT YALE
ŞAHİN ALPAY
SELÇUK GÜLTAŞLI
SUAT KINIKLIOĞLU
YAVUZ BAYDAR