Eid, autumn leaves, Ergenekon and freedom of speech

Hearing that, my wife insisted that I should write about something joyous, like eid celebrations in the US, how American and non-American Muslims and non-Muslims celebrate eid together in the US or the fast-breaking dinners and programs I have attended in the US Congress and elsewhere, about the positive things that some American statesmen, Congressmen and women have said about Turkey and Turks living, working and engaging in educational or dialogue activities or my son's recent experience.

This year, with the encouragement and assistance of his mother, my son, who is attending primary school here in the US, requested and was granted formal permission in advance from the school management to bring gifts and cupcakes, nuts, candies and chocolate for all his classmates and teachers. He took and shared them with his friends and teachers at school. They all celebrated eid together and talked about the faith of my son, the only Muslim boy in his grade, and other kids' faiths and about the necessity of living in mutual understanding, respect and peace. This was done according to their level and understanding, of course: childish, pure and innocent, without politics. So it was a festive day for all the kids and teachers at our local school.

“If you are not going to write about that,” said my wife, “then write about how the autumn comes to the north, where we are living… how the golden, amber and hazel leaves and the forest inform us about the splendor given to nature by the Almighty Creator and the passing of time and human life and how we should spend our lives in better and profound understanding of the reality of time, creation and our transient life among countless blessings.” She underlined, “Not something very serious, especially not the ongoing headache in Turkey, the deep-state Ergenekon terror organization.” That was the zeitgeist at home.

So I delved into Turkish news and press sites and everything was already there: the mentality and strategy of Ergenekon, both the culprits and advocates -- how freedom of speech is sabotaged under the jurisdiction of certain judges; how two opposition party leaders praise the accused in the ongoing trials; how a prominent journalist was sentenced and a film star, a singer and a TV show anchorwoman were accused of inciting hatred and division in Turkey; how the chief of general staff in Turkey counterattacked the journalists and others who had uncovered plans to eliminate the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and civil society faith-based initiatives and their supporters; how a serving military colonel, charged with almost 150 extrajudicial killings of local people in southeast Turkey, is attending the hearings flanked by two serving higher-ranking officers in uniform against all the regulations of the court. It became hard to recall my dear wife's suggestions.

The recent conviction of Star columnist Şamil Tayyar for two articles he penned on the probe into Ergenekon has dealt another near-fatal blow to freedom of the press in Turkey. What Tayyar published was an excerpt of the Ergenekon indictment, but the Turkish court handed down a sentence of one-and-a-half years in jail and a fine. Tayyar will be under judicial supervision for five years and will be returned to prison if he commits a crime within that period.

In an interview, celebrity Hülya Avşar, noting her Turkish-Kurdish lineage, expressed her concerns about opposition to the government's democratic initiative and said that we should not fail this time as we have failed for all these years under the republic. Otherwise, it could be difficult to convince the terrorist operatives of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to lay down their arms. For this expression of concern, she is to be punished.