Payback?
More arrests have taken place in the Ergenekon case of a criminal gang charged with assassinations of public figures and plotting to overthrow the elected government. The criminal network is suspected to have links in the Turkish military and bureaucracy. This time, the dragnet pulled in two senior officials of a Turkish political party, a former university rector and the chief columnist of a daily newspaper — all known for their neo-nationalism and ultra-secularism. Most curious was the arrest of Ilhan Selcuk, chief columnist for Cumhuriyet newspaper, who is in his 80s. All were arrested in 4 am raids on their homes. Click here for an article on the latest arrests.
A number of other journalists were among those detained on Friday: Ulusal Kanal Television Channel’s Editor-in-Chief Fethi Ilsever, Aydinlik Magazine Editor-in-Chief Serhan Bolluk, and journalist Adnan Akfirat.
Ilhan Selcuk (Photo from Radikal)
Some of the people arrested in the Ergenekon case have long been known to operate on the far edge of legality and some were known for their intimidation and harassment tactics. But the arrest of journalists like Ilhan Selcuk seem to some to be fishing too deep. Some are asking if this isn’t AKP’s payback for the indictment to close the party — dragging anyone that opposed them in the past into the Ergenekon dragnet. No one I know has seen the charges against Selcuk. He has been an outspoken opponent of AKP in his columns. But under the system of free speech that AKP claims to want, by itself that shouldn’t be grounds for arrest. Of course, Eren Keskin has just been sentenced to jail for making a common political analysis at a conference (she is accused under Article 301 of insulting the army), an event that received almost more attention in the New York Times than in the Turkish press. There was no pushback from the AKP on Keskin’s situation, even though it was clearly a free speech issue.
The AKP has an opportunity now to show that it really understands what freedom of speech and a liberal constitution mean. So far, it has shown itself unwilling to apply those principles to anyone but itself. AKP accepted the Constitutional Court’s attempt to shut down the Kurdish DPT, a party in parliament, but when it was the AKP facing a ban, they said that was wrong. AKP has shelved changing the infamous Article 301 of the penal Code that criminalizes insulting Turkishness (and has turned a blind eye to its application, eg in the Keskin case), but had no problem this week in immediately attempting to change the constitution to make it harder to close political parties. Is it now rounding up its enemies? That would be a shame because it would discredit not only AKP’s liberalization program, but also undermine the very important Ergenekon case by dragging it into the ideological mud.
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