[Originally published in Hürriyet Daily News]
If you want to get a sense of what has been going on in the Turkish political scene lately, you should take a look at the case of Mustafa Balbay.
Balbay is the Ankara correspondent of daily Cumhuriyet, the beacon of Kemalist (i.e., secularist and nationalist) ideology. He was arrested 10 days ago, as a part of the Ergenekon trial. (Ergenekon, if that sounds like Chinese to you, is a covert network that allegedly organized bombings and shootings in order to provoke a military coup.)
Yet when Balbay was arrested for being a member of Ergenekon, quite a few journalists considered this to be an assault on press freedom. A “signing day” was organized in the offices of Cumhuriyet, at which Balbay’s books were bought and signed by fellow writers who expressed sympathy for their detained colleague. “I don’t want a country,” said Mehmet Barlas, a pundit who writes for daily Sabah, “where people are jailed because of what they think.”
Media With a Mission
All this solidarity for free press was inspiring and moving, especially to those unversed foreigners who had little clue about Ergenekon, but it was a little bit off the target because Balbay was not arrested for something he wrote. No, he was arrested for his alleged role in the covert coup plans of Ergenekon.
And, lo and behold!.. Amazing stuff came out from his world. Apparently, he had a detailed diary in his computer, which he thought he deleted, but which was recovered by the police experts. (Lesson: Never trust the trash bin of your PC; digital files are very hard to fully shred.) And this diary included jaw-dropping accounts of a military coup plan in which Mr. Balbay apparently took an active part. The document was “leaked” to the press, as it is often done in popular cases in Turkey and was first published by the Tempo24 magazine. In a matter of hours, the whole Turkish media was all over it.
So, what is there in this hot diary? Well, there is the story of a coup plan that some hotheaded generals and their civilian allies such as Balbay started to develop as early as 2003. These generals were very unhappy with the election victory of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, which they saw as a both “religionist” and “unpatriotic” force. A two-star general, Erdal Şener, is reported to have regretted that they hadn’t “finished this business” in the previous “soft coup” period of Feb. 28, 1997, and has argued: “We need to come and stay [in power] for 10 to 15 years, and put things in order… It was much easier in 1997; there was no EU or Copenhagen [criteria]… Now it is more difficult.”
You see the idea? A military regime that will go on for 10 to 15 years and put all of society “in order.” God knows how many people would be imprisoned, tortured and killed, and how many lives would be traumatized during this period of ideological restoration.
In the rest of the diary, we see how Mr. Balbay took an active part in convincing the radical generals that they need to find a way to neutralize their more moderate superiors, especially the then chief of general staff Gen. Hilmi Özkök. (Özkök was an exceptional soldier who said, “The only thing Turkey needs more is democracy.” He was despised and even depicted as a traitor by radical Kemalists.)
In one interesting episode, retired gendarme commander Gen. Şener Eruygur is reported to give instructions to Balbay and tell him why “patriotic” journalists like him are all too important in the battle against the elected government. “It is crucial that the media does its job,” he says, “but you are just a few people.” The “job” the general mentions is to convince the public about the evil intentions of the government and thus create public support for the suspension of democracy.
The Story Behind
But the media, except those “few good people,” failed to do the “job” that the irritated generals gave them. “We told Milliyet to put a photo of a covered woman everyday to its front page; the next day they put Hülya Avşar’s back!” a general whines. “With a media like this, how can you make a coup?” (For the uninitiated, let me note that Mrs. Hülya Avşar is a famous Turkish film star whose eye-catching “back” would be reminiscent of, say, that of Mrs. Jennifer Lopez. And the logic behind the covered women photo on the front page is to give the impression that Turkey is rapidly becoming like Iran, and hence we urgently need to be saved by our gallant generals.)
Balbay’s alleged diary is full of so many other details, which makes it highly credible. It also perfectly fits into the details given in another exposed diary — that of retired admiral Özden Örnek, which also documented the proceedings of failed coup plans in 2003 and 2004.
So, this is the story behind the curious case of Mustafa Balbay. If he were arrested simply for his ideas, I would happily join the people who defend him. But things look much more complicated. I just strongly hope that the judges of the Ergenekon trial will be able to unravel them truthfully.
It’s irresponsible to pontificate on an ongoing case. What we have right now are allegations and misinformation (the minister of justice himself said this).
Let the judge decide.
“Balbay’s alleged diary”
“the judges of the Ergenekon trial will be able to unravel them truthfully.”
and many more phrases which unambiguously refer to the case as an ongoing and alleged – not proved.
Allah razi olsun Mustafa!
The western media is absolutely right. The Ergenokon case had become a “witch hunt”, and turned out to be a reflection of some kind of a sick mentality on the part of Erdogan to suppress any potential opposition. The Minister of Justice was bold enough to state that he does not know much about the case, and like everyone else he is following the cases in the newspapers as if he is a part time or a puppet Minister. I wonder which newspapers he is reading.
Who is next? Anyone who pronounces Ataturk’s name? Has Turkey not witnessed this sick mentality during the DP era? Did Erdogan learn anything from it? Why is Erdogan acting like a tribal leader?
The Ergenekon case is absolutely well-founded because the known evidence has already made it obvious that most of the people who are being tried are involved in a complex network of Kemalists and pseudo-Kemalists involved in terrorist activities, perpetrated in the name of the Turkish state in order to instigate anarchy in Turkey, leading to a coup d’etat.
Alparslan Arslan, the person who attacked one of the highest Turkish courts and killed a highest-level judge and shouted that he did it in the name of Islam in an ostensible and showing-off way, has been proven to be one of the “ulusalci” secularist-nationalists. There is a very friendly photo of his taken side by side with Veli Küçük, a former general and the former head of the Atatürkist Thought Association. That photo, whose authenticity is beyond doubt, was discovered in a not-well-known paper by very good chance. There are also many other photos, discovered after much research as well, that prove that he is an ulusalci provocateur who participated in many of their anti-Islamist meetings against Islamism.
Think of this unambiguous and well-proven fact again: A fiery anti-Islamist who, soon after the anti-Islamist meetings that he joined as one of the most vociferous anti-government, anti-Islamist protestors, killed a high court judge and claimed boastingly and noisily that he did it in the name of Islamism and the headscarf? Moreover, his father has also insisted very anxiously that his son did it for Islam and is an Islamist hero! Even further more, the father has been found without a shadow of doubt to have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in his bank account in the days following the murder. He even admitted being paid them (because he had to, the transaction having been well-recorded) but then claimed that they were just coincidentally paid on those days by some non-criminal friend and not in the least in relation to the murder!
And after all of this, by the secularist establishment and its state-within-state and “embedded news media”, we are forced to give up on these well-established pieces of evidence by stopping the trials and believe that Alparslan Arslan and his father are indeed telling the truth and the anti-Islamist ulusalci (secularist-nationalist) son did it all for the sake of Islam and the headscarf. Shame on them. How can people justify terrorism and try to hinder its prosecution when they believe that the terrorists are their own?
This is what the secularists who post here and pose as if anybody needs to take them seriously (pretend to) believe in. Beware of all this.
After all this official and well-proven information, there is no question or doubt at all that all was an anti-Islamist conspiracy, aimed at leading the nation into anti-government sensation, in the high court murder involving Alparslan Arslan and his father. The only question is what the Ergenekon state-within-state organization, that blood-thirsty terrorist organization offered to Alparslan Arslan and his father. The father has already gotten at least some of his reward actually.
As for the son: If everything had gone all right, i.e. if the above-mentioned evidence had not been uncovered by chance (or by Divine grace) and the secularist news media and the secularist bureaucracy managed to keep on manipulating the public opinion as well as the courts and managed to prevent any further prosecution, the coup d’etat would have already happened. And…
And a few years later after the murder, around or after this date, we would certainly hear in the newspapers, as a very small and insignificant news item, that the [pseudo-]Islamist murderer Alparslan Arslan had “somehow” fled from prison a long long time ago, just soon after he was convicted or the coup d’etat happened…
Similar things have always happened in modern Turkish history. The unequivocal evidence that we already have in public, regardless of the trials continuing or not, proves that the secularist-nationalist Ergenekon-related Danistay (a Turkish highest court of the Republic) attack and murder was just another one of those anti-government, anti-Islamic provocations.
The West moving toward describing the Ergenekon Terrorist Organization prosecution as a witch-hunt? That wouldn’t be surprising at all.
When has the West been for real democracy and “human rights for all” for the so-called Third World or the developing countries?
America and other countries and the major news medias of the West have always been in support of despotic regimes in the Middle East provided that these regimes are secular and/or West-oriented.
The European Court of Human Rights even ruled twice and thus legally forever that the much condemned Turkish Islamic headscarf ban is not a breach of the human rights of those young women whose gained right of university education has been taken away and given to others.
The West has always been in a secret but unconcealable alliance with the despotic secularist regimes and/or military-bureaucratic elite circles who crushed and oppressed the Muslim majorities of the Muslim lands.
I won’t be surprised at all when, with their news media and governments, they take a further action and side with the bloody secularist ultra-nationalist terrorist organization of Ergenekon and its active supporters against those Muslims of Turkey, who are called Islamists, whose only fault is to be more religiously minded and more peaceful individuals than the average secularized, easily manipulated nationalist Turk.
To secretly or openly aid those despotic regimes (despotic in their own recognition too) who oppress and murder the Muslims and then to speak vociferously about the need of the non-Muslim minorities in Muslim countries for even more freedom and better treatment… This is what the U.S. and its Western allies have already been doing to us. It appears that this is the only type of behavior that those people are capable of exhibiting. May God save us from their sinister, oppressive and hypocritical hands… their hands which are the secularist despots, the modernizers, the secularizers of our lands…
I admit i have read some articles as described by cingoz, but they were in those few American papers that always love to make turkey look like a despotic, barbaric and backward banana republic. they always champion the Armenian and PPk cause. So i am surprised you read those articles. the majority of articles i have read have praised turkey and its judicial system in being able to investigate and prosecute such a well entrenched, powerful and shadowy organization. Whenever i read that a foreign politician has commented on the case, its always in praise of the government. The undisputed facts are that munitions, weapons and bombs have been found along with detailed documentation. there have been several bodies found in wells. These wells locations were described in the above mentioned documentation Let the judicial process run its course and hope to hell turkey has advanced enough democratically and judicially that this case doesnt end up like susursluk (10% complete). For gods sake let turkey advance and take its rightful place on the world stage. The only way that will ever happen is through democratic processes. Otherwise you will end up with a country resembling pakistan, indonesia or nigeria. countries that are potentially very wealthy but the corruption and ineffectiveness of their governments make them states that want to be but never will.
P.S do some research on glaudio and you might find that italy experienced a similar episode in its past.
Kenan,
The issue is not with the criminal cases. They should have started long time ago. It is the way they are conducted and the way they are utilized by Erdogan’s government. Some suspects were held in custody for more than a year without any charges. This is another way of implying “one is guilty until proven innocent.” More importantly, Ergenekon case is now being contaminated by Erdogan’s opportunism to suppress opposition. Since when Ergenekon was a case against secularism, Kemalism or nationalism? Under the veil of Ergenekon, everyone criticizing Erdogan and his government are being labeled as terrorists, and treated as one, including the members of civil organizations. It is one right case going terribly wrong, and quickly becoming AKP vs. the rest. Judiciary must be rescued from Erdogan for this case to succeed, and Erdogan must be more encompassing with his messages including secularists, Kemalists and nationalists since these ideologies and beliefs are not necessarily crimes against the state. It is the same mentality that labels all Muslims as suicidal radical Islamists, and we all know that they are not.
Mehmed Mustafa Hamdi,
Be careful again with your generalizations and categorizations. Nationalists in Turkey (MHP) are perhaps more conservative in terms of religion than the members of AKP. You would be grossly mistaken if you frame an argument around a struggle between Islamists vs. secular-nationalists at this point.
cingoz
thanks for your reply
Unless there is another way to establish the truth and then prosecute the guilty parties, i believe that it must be investigated by the police and then the judiciary will prosecute the parties involved, if found to be guilty. Its not AKP who are arresting the suspects and then trying them. its the police who do the investigations and apprehend the suspects and as far as i know they are independent and traditionally against the AKP.
After that its up to the judicial system to prosecute the suspects and establish their innocence or guilt, not the AKP. There have been some incredibly irresponsible politicians screaming of a political witch hunt. These particular politicians are the ones who dont let go of the leadership of their respective parties once they loose the elections, as would any respectable leader of a party in a solid democracy. Why do these selfish and greedy leaders hinder the case and spread suspicion amongst the people of turkey (i have strong suspicions towards Baykal and believe the only reason he hasnt been charged for involvement is that people like yourself would feel justified in saying that its politically motivated). They should instead follow the judicial system with a magnifying glass and if they see any regularities, improper behavior or breaches of conduct and law by the judiciary then report it and present a factual case. Erdogan Baykal or bahceli are unimportant. What is important is that these crimes are investigated and the perpetrators prosecuted. If we were to let it go and do nothing, i would suggest dont bother voting in the future elections because its not your vote that counts its the decisions of these criminals/terrorists that count then. Ergenekon was never a case against secularism if it were then baykal bacheli and ERDOGAN would be charged guilty. The problem with most secularists in turkey is that they have tattooed into their brain that AKP is islamist. They are as much Islamist as Blair/Brown, Merkel, Berlesconi or Clinton/Obama are cristian fundamentalists. AKP are just like the politicians i just mentioned, they recognise the religion of the nations people and respect the right of those citizens to have their religion and are not discriminated against because they have a religion. No where have i seen the AKP try and make turkey into a theocracy, on the contrary from what i have seen they have tried to make it similar to here (Australia) where there is a secular political structure and recognition that everyone has the right to believe and practice their religion, irrelevant of what that religion is. Believe it or not muslim women can go to school wearing a head scarf here in australia whether they are Australian citizens or not. but in Turkey our sisters and mothers are treated as second class citizens because they chose to practice their religious duties. try and look at this from a foreigners perspective. We look like we are hopeless cowards, scared of a piece of cloth and remember that if these women wore the cloth or not their beliefs wouldnt change. the other group sees us as oppressing muslim women what else would you expect from muslim men. Lets show the world that we are a nation of 99% muslims and we will be as good a democracy as anywhere else in this world. We need to show it to the other muslim nations more than we have to show it to the west. that way we create an alternative to fundamentalism. If we keep repressing the nations right to belief dont be scared of AKP, be scared of what will come. a proper theocratic regime, because if you ignore the majority long enough the majority will radicalize and revolt in a radical way. the perfect example is Iran with how the Shah repressed the majorities right to belief, so the majority radicalized. Lets not let that happen in Turkey
Kenan,
I see your point. There is quite a few points I agree. I only have time to state those I disagree so that we will not waste time affirming each other.
Daily life, and the intricacies of daily politics are not entirely as they are reflected in popular newspapers read abroad, such as Today’s Zaman or Zaman. I advise you to read – if you are not already – other newspapers too. I am assuming that you are reading these two newspapers simply because your arguments (some of which I agree) sound a lot like what is being fed to our citizens who consented to live in economically prosperous Western (and Yes, Australia is one of them) democratic countries with per-capita income and educational levels way higher than Turkey. I would like to stress “consent” because that shows that you are willing to live with beliefs other than of your own as minority. You have no chance of occupying the Senate, and enacting conservative laws dictated by your religion let alone siphoning off funds from your own community and getting away with it (Deniz Feneri A.V.). These democracies are not scared of a piece of cloth because they have no reason to – although lately they are getting quite tough with the Muslim population in Europe. In short, Turkey is not Australia or the US. Believe me the Muslim population you are exposed to in Australia is not even close to that in Turkey.
There is a reason why there is skepticism towards Islam. It is because of its alleged tendency towards violence and mistreatment of women, and fundamentalist inclinations that do not meet democratic norms. When these tendencies are coupled with illiteracy, unemployment, inequality, economic backwardness and etc. as in Turkey then we have a problem that you perhaps cannot see from where you stand.
I simply see Islam (as it is) contributing neither love, peace and tolerance as it deems nor scientific, and cultural development. I do not see how Islamic teachings (as they are) will improve Turkey let alone reform itself. Therefore, I would like to teach my children that they do not need to cover their heads or their entire body for that matter to prove that they are honest and moral people.
If there is something that needs to be fixed with Turkey, it is not in Australia, the EU or the US. All I see is a bunch of “Islamo-liberals” who are barking at the wrong tree by running from one conference to another in Western democracies while sipping their Starbucks lattes and contemplating a world of moderate Islam with homesick Indonesian and Malaysian girls and Western academics of the exotic rather than educating their own back at home. Who would take Konya, Sivas or Erzurum over Sydney, Washington DC or NY? I guess I cannot blame them but I am just tired of reading comments from misfits both in their own community and abroad (and that is not you), and taking advice from denizens who persistently overlook the effects of the society they live in on their religious beliefs (you may qualify under this one). I see your point on Iran, however.