In 1996, Turkey came very close to understanding the mysteries behind all the resolved and unresolved assassinations. This year, a hope emerged to shed a light on these assassinations when a Mercedes hit a truck which led to the discovery of several guns and documents in the town of Susurluk in Balikesir. The passengers in the car were an assassin named Abdullah Çatli, Parliament member Sedat Bucak, and chief of police Hüseyin Kocadag. There were two important things to remember in this incident. One of them was the “one minute of darkness for light forever” campaign and the other is how the Prime Minister of Turkey identified the expectations of the people as “gulu gulu dance”(a term used to humiliate the supporters). Thus, despite people’s demand to investigate the issue thoroughly, the incident and all the clues reached from the accident were covered up by assigning a weak and inefficient parliamentary commission. Regardless of the complaints from commission members, higher level bureaucrats found the strength to hide their agenda from the government under the name of “state secret” – A secret even the government never found out. The short term hope to resolve the mysteries suddenly turned into disappointment among the people. The conspiracy theorists at the time produced much misinformation which confused the public even further.

 In 2000, Turkey chose to follow a different path. Entering into a new economic development phase, public desire to control government institutions, the growing middle class, under the shadow of the economic 2001 crisis gave the signals to establish new cultural, social and judicial standards. Important parameters of this period were the establishment of private media and the arrival of the internet in Turkey, which eventually led to more democratic demands from the society. In brief, the relations between the society and the businessmen were redefined during this period. There are two more important factors that contributed to the democratization process in Turkey: One is the reduction of PKK terrorist activity after imprisoning the leader, Abdullah Ocalan. The second one is stopping Hezbullah with a wide range of operations held in Turkey. The European Union process is an additional factor which affected this period. Turkey started to resolve the domestic problems within its borders, which along with the European Union process, led Turkey (with her confidently growing middle class) to demand more democracy, more human rights, and more transparency in the country.

The hand grenades found in Umraniye on June 12^th 2007, didn’t initially appear too threatening. But, the fact that the bombs discovered in Umraniye were found to be from the same series as the bombs from the attack on the Cumhuriyet newspaper’s office raised suspicions. Moreover, the persons involved in the bombing of the newspaper headquarters were found to be in relation to the assassin (Alparslan Aslan) of the president of the State Council, Mustafa Yucel Bilgin. The investigation conducted between July 12, 2007 and October 26, 2008 resulted in 167 persons to be taken into custody of which 70 are currently on trial for promoting a rebellion against the government and planning a coup d’état.  

One of the major waves of the operation took place on October 7^th 2009 with operations held in Izmir, Ankara, Kayseri, Istanbul, Sakarya, Duzce, Kastamonu, Balikesir, Mugla, Sirnak, Sivas and Tokat. As a result of these operations numerous guns, shotguns, and machine guns were captured and retired bureaucrats, military personnel, businessmen, academicians, and policemen were taken into custody. The important fact in this “tenth wave of operations” is the acquisition of several guns which matched the indictment’s creating the chaos and the base needed for a coup d’état.

Another important factor in these operations is the discovery of the relationship between the Susurluk’s background actors and the new Ergenekon actors. Moreover, the discover of the weapons underground may also mean that much of the clues are buried underground as well. Especially the plastic explosives, TNTs, Anti-tank weapons, hand grenades, Barettas and Glocks found during the operations raise the expectations to shed light on the unresolved assassinations.

If we look as the history of assassinations in Turkey in the last 30 years we see that, Hamit Fendoglu was killed by a bomb while walking home in 1978, Prosecutor Dogan Öz was killed with a gun in 1978 while preparing to take a counter-guerilla organization to the court, academicians Bedri Karafakioglu and Bedrettin Comert were killed and the assassins are still not known, famous journalist Abdi Ipekçi was killed with a gunshot in February 1979, Gun Sazak, one of the leading figures of the Nationalist Movement was killed with a gun on May 27, 1980, and former Prime Minister Nihat Erim and the president of the Labor Union - DISK were also killed during this period. Although in certain cases the assassins were found, they managed to escape, but often the assassination remained unresolved.

The second wave of the mysterious assassinations took place in the 1990s. Famous jurist Muammer Aksoy was killed with a 7.65mm Baretta on January 31, 1990. Intelligence officer Hiram Abas was killed in a similar fashion with a 7.65mm gun (with a silencer), and journalist Çetin Emeç and writer Turan Dursun were murdered with guns. Although to what extent one can associate the weapons fopund underground with the guns used in the assassinations is unclear, it is commonly known that Glocks, Barettas, and Uzis are used for assassinations. In 1990s Bahriye Üçok, Ugur Mumcu, Onat Kutlar, and Ahmet Taner Kislali were all killed with a C4 type or plastic explosives in the 1990s.

If we look at the third wave of assassinations we see that writer Necip Hablemitoglu, jurist Mustafa Yüvel Özbilgin, Priest Santoro, and journalist Hrant Dink were murdered with Barettas and Glocks. With the solid evidence we have in hand, such as from Ümraniye and Sapanca, one can expect that the guns found underground could have possibly been used for the past assassinations. Finding the link between the discovered guns and the guns used in the assassinations make up the most important part of the investigation.

 

The Ergenekon investigation faces severe criticism with the point it reached today regarding the excessive time it takes to prepare the indictment as well as the applicability of the judicial procedures.  It is clear that the criticism will enable a better functioning investigation process; however it is ultimately dangerous when the criticisms overshadow the process and the successes of the operations and the investigation, especially, claiming that the operations are purely political, as the government is using them to clear the opposition. The Susurluk investigation was not successfully completed for many of the same reasons. If the government and the institutions fully supported the investigation, Turkey would have been promoted to the league of “fully democratic nations” many years ago. Calling the investigations “nonsense”, as the Prime Minister did in 1996 was wrong; but it is to not support the prosecutors and the police force- conducting the investigation. In order to get rid of such illegal underground organization, the government and the institutions need to fully cooperate by providing logistical support for the investigations.

The second criticism of the Ergenekon operation regards taking high profile bureaucrats, officers, businessmen into custody who seem to have no links (in public) to the Ergenekon organization. The criticism is strong enough to remind us of the oppressive authoritarian regimes. The Ergenekon investigation has probably gone through the most democratic controls and observations in Turkish history. Heavily criticizing the process and relating it to the oppressive authoritarian periods is unfair considering the fact that there is much room for media to follow everything step by step and criticize every minor mistake in the operations. Above all, the prosecutors and the judges are not on the junta side, they are on the state’s side. Therefore an intervention in the judicial process, heavily and constantly criticizing the judges, will not serve to the best interest of Turkey.

One other criticism of the investigations stems from the possible involvement of high profile persons which is skeptically received by the public. The investigation process continues, but considering that Gladyo in Italy found support even from the President, and in the GAL operation in Spain it was found that high level bureaucrats and politicians were involved and prosecuted, this skepticism is no longer relevant. Of course it is not correct to relate every name associated with the Ergenekon operation to the past assassinations. But it is also not correct to claim that these people cannot possibly be related to the organization because of their high-rank status. Turkey will be able to take a step towards the “democratic league” once it is able to accept the fact that any person including a high-profile figure can be taken to court, tried in front of a judge when a crime is committed.

Categorizing the Ergenekon operation as secular vs. non-secular, Kemalist vs Non-Kemalists is nothing more than manipulating the investigation and the public. After all, even the persons accused are not defending themselves this way. During the Susurluk investigation – the common phrase heard over and over again is “what I did was for the best of my country” and in the Ergenekon investigation, the use of Kemalism, flag, nation, country and etc. is only abusing these values for personal benefit. Using such values in order to prove innocence may have different meanings. At the end of the investigations, if these people are found guilty, they should also think of the damage they made to the values they claim to protect. Therefore the ones demanding the Ergenekon operation are those who want more democracy, more transparency and more justice. The only way to find out the truth is through fully supporting the investigations by providing only constructive criticism to the judges and the prosecutors. 

12.01.2009

Ihsan Bal

Translated by: Huseyin Akturk