Threats Made Against Ergenekon Prosecutors
What is Ergenekon?
Over the past few months, the Turkish police have arrested a diverse group of shadowy figures, including former military officers, secret police, prosecutors, and others, accused of plotting to overthrow the Turkish government, preparing to assassinate the Turkish Nobel Laureate writer Orhan Pamuk, and of being involved in the murder of other prominent Turkish figures, including last year’s killing of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.
The issue around which this gang organized its activities was the protection of Turkish blood and identity against foreign powers whom they believe to be acting against Turkey through its Armenians, Christians, and other minorities (Kurds, for instance) and through missionaries. The group, thought to have ties high up in the state apparatus (the Turks call this shadowy network the “Deep State”), also dislikes the present Muslim-inspired elected government (ergo the coup attempts). It calls itself Ergenekon after the origin myth of the Turks in which a gray wolf showed them the way out of their legendary Central Asian homeland Ergenekon. The gray wolf has long been a symbol of the ultranationalists.
Update:
The indictment against the Ergenekon gang is about to be submitted to court. According to press reports, prosecutors and police officers in the case have allegedly been threatened, sometimes by senior members of the judiciary, and over 400 cases have been filed by the court against the media for discussing details of the case.
From Murat Yilmaz’s column:
… Attempts to intimidate judicial figures committed to doing their job following an indictment in the Semdinli case in which a public prosecutor was disbarred after pursuing charges against a soldier are now being made in the Ergenekon case, which so far has nearly 50 suspects under arrest and awaiting trial. Threats ranging from removal from office to murder are made against prosecutors who investigate the case…
Some judicial figures — some retired and some still in office — openly threatened the prosecutors and police officers, implying that they will share the fate of Ferhat Sarikaya, the prosecutor removed in the Semdinli case. That the list of those who made such threats includes [a prominent judge] known for his extensive role in the Constitutional Court’s decision on the 367-quorum case [that impeded the election of Abdullah Gul as president] and the filing of the AK Party closure case, shows the seriousness of the situation….
to read the entire column, click here (for an account of the threat against Sarikaya, read my blog entry for February 22)
We’re not getting good information on this, and this piece is no exception. I don’t know if there was an actual plot to kill Pamuk either but it appears that people are convinced of it. How?
I’m sure the MSM will spin things one way and press closer to the AKP will spin it another way. The spin itself may degenerate into something revolting. How things get out of hand in the minds of propagandists and how even peaceful mass demonstrations are seen as being in the same league as terror is evident in the opening paragraph:
Since 2002 — the formation of the Ergenekon terror group, a shady gang whose members allegedly perpetrated a number of attacks and bombings to create chaos, which began with the Ay????? and Sar?k?z coup attempts, anti-government protests before the elections and the latest indictment filed to close down the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) — the judiciary has unfortunately failed to play the role it is supposed to play in a democratic order; rather, it prefers heading in the opposite direction. (emphasis mine)
If this is the way people are led to think, we will not be able to have any organized dissent in this country. The trick in maintaining the liberties, as many Zaman authors ought to know, is to punish actual conspiracies leading to physical crimes and not create an atmosphere where any gathering for expressing dissent is painted with the same brush as conspiracies leading to murder even if the organizers are otherwise shady people. This is elementary. No?