The Plots Proliferate: Is Ergenekon a Fiction of the CIA?
A prosecutor is investigating links between an organized crime group known as Atabeyler, whose plans to assassinate Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan were uncovered two years ago, and Ergenekon, a shadowy group suspected of trying to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), thereby bringing down the government.
The Atabeyler gang was uncovered in a police operation in 2005. Its members were given prison sentences by a military court. Two former sergeants and an ex-pilot expelled from the military were charged with hiding ammunition that belongs to the military. The ex-pilot also was charged with revealing confidential documents. Lawsuits against other members are still underway.
Members of Ergenekon were arrested this year at the end of an eight-month operation that began with the discovery of a house full of explosives and ammunition in Istanbul. The gang has several ex-military officers among its members, including an ex-general, and apparent links to individuals and groups within the state bureaucracy who have not yet been identified and arrested. The Ergenekon terrorist organization, as the prosecution now calls it, was allegedly making plans to foment chaos in the country that would eventually justify a military coup d’état against the ruling AK Party. It is suspected to be behind a number of political attacks, including the 2007 killing of a prominent ethnic Armenian journalist and a 2006 shooting of a senior judge. (click for article)
Given these continuing revelations covered in all the media, it has been rather shocking for me to encounter public opinion. People on the street seem to believe that all of Turkey’s recent problems (everything from the PKK to Ergenekon, the success of the AKP, as well as the case to close the AKP) have been caused by the CIA. Why would the US (or the EU, also a popular evildoer) want to do these things? The usual answers are: “Outsiders are trying to break Turkey apart”; “They want our land”; or “The US wants to turn the whole region into an Islamic state”. No reasoned argument based on actual geopolitical considerations (for instance, that more countries becoming Islamic would be against US interests in every conceivable way, given its current sensitivities) makes any inroad into these explanations.
When I asked people about internal factors that might be creating some of these problems, there was no interest whatsoever in self-reflection. The CIA plot scenario is so self-evident, satisfying, and all-explanatory. But I also discovered that people (young people, in particular) don’t listen to or read the Turkish news. They get their ideas from other people. “Lots of people told me that…” was a common explanation for how they knew their scenario was correct. One young man genuinely, it seemed to me, had never even heard of Ergenekon. More surprising to me, though, is that the all-encompassing CIA explanation is also widespread among well-read, well-traveled professionals, including university professors, people who DO read the news. Is Ergenekon a fiction of the CIA’s imagination? Is the CIA plot a fiction of the Turkish public’s imagination?
Remember the saying, Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean no one is out to get you. The challenge is to know who.
I think a lot of the CIA-rooted theories are based in their documented activities (http://www.scribd.com/doc/294202/Daniele-Ganser-NATOs-Secret-Armies-Operation-Gladio-and-Terrorism-in-Western-Europe). JITEM, the Grey Wolves, etc., all come from this, or are/were dependent upon it. Personally, though, I suspect the CIA tries to look like Machiavelli, but ends up resembling Frankenstein.