Ertugrul Ozkok: A strange incident in Ergenekon probe
Güncelleme Tarihi:
The other day, before everybody’s eyes, we witnessed the strangest incident yet in the history of Turkey’s judiciary.
Allow me to list one-by-one what we experienced on that day.
Last Friday, Istanbul Chief Prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin made an announcement in which he said that on the following Monday at 11:00 a.m. a statement would be made about the Ergenekon indictment.
I organized myself to be available at that time on Monday.
However on Monday, I was speaking to a member of the writing staff from
I looked at the time; it was 10:45 a.m.
I did not learn why the press conference that had been set for a specific time was brought forward by 15 minutes.
The chief prosecutor did not give any details on the contents of the indictment, in accordance with judicial procedure.
He only outlined the technical details.
We announced this in our headline story as “First official information in 13 months”.
However, even late in the day the same reports were came from both the Hurriyet news service and the Dogan News Agency.
Despite the chief prosecutor saying that he was unable to make a full explanation regarding the indictment before the court had accepted to hear the case, some parts of the indictment were leaked.
While the top prosecutor was stating that most of the information leaked until now was untrue, different voices were being heard from below.
As of the previous night, all members of the Turkish media had found little or no answer to question of up until now, “Who are the sources behind the information leaks?”
* * *
It begs the question; why some had attempted to leak information on this crucial day as the top prosecutor was making his statement?
The strongest likelihood circulating about this situation in the media yesterday; was this.
Following the chief prosecutor’s statement that political and judicial circles had begun to ask the question; “Whether the indictment has any substance?”
It is highly likely that the statement was made so "the agenda be filled immediately" in an effort to dismiss the negative atmosphere that these comments would probably cause.
Yet those leaking information, as far as I am concerned, made a major tactical error.
Yesterday, a friend of mine who follows the “Ergenekon case” with huge hope called me. He sounded disheartened.
This is exactly what he told me:
“Couldn’t they find a better way that his if they had really wanted to water down this case?”
At first I did not understand what they were talking about.
Then later, he said that the word appeared in yesterday’s headline stories:
“Agartha…”*
"If this word has been included in the indictment, the case would become part of farcical history, while we had expected it to be a part of democratic history."
I noticed already that a lot of jokes are circulating in relation to this term.
A lot of these jokes even include reference to the underwater city of
Yet, this case should be taken seriously, more importantly should be made to be taken seriously.
In order for it to be taken more seriously we need to leave aside this habit of giving meaning and asserting an objective to these references aside from its actual legal meaning.
Because when one side presents the meaning of "a fraying military and an improving democracy" to these references, then the other side views this as "an effort that targets to spurn those who defend Kemalism and the secular system."
* * *
Those who think logically want to bring an end to this primitive and schematic dilemma and continue it as a legal operation against a gang that operates inside and outside the authority of the State.
I am also among those who think this way.
Especially, after witnessing the clumsy acts, the interrogations violating private lives and the careless statements being brandished about that raise a number of questions; even in my mind.
For this reason, I place great deal of hope in the court.
I hope that this case, which is extremely important for