The divorce case: Ergenekon vs. Susurluk

As this point, regarding the attempts to obscure and dilute the Ergenekon crime gang investigation there cannot be more striking evaluation than the above. The assessment was on the weapons, explosives and ammunition unearthed in Ankara after the sketches found in the house of İbrahim Şahin, a Susurluk convict and a key Ergenekon suspect undergoing trial. This is a perfect example for the attempts to mark Ergenekon with the Susurluk incident via Şahin and to prove that the Ergenekon is of no importance or no gravity.

But this bright "slogan" turns meaningless at two points:

1. The Susurluk debris revealed weapons, explosives, bombs; or in short, weapons of sabotage and assassination. And apparently, the date that they were buried was long after the Susurluk incident. To the more, Şahin doesn’t claim the sketches and the handwriting on it.

2. The weapons stack discovered in the Zir Valley of Sincan in Ankara after another sketch was found at the house of Lt. Col. Mustafa Dönmez, now held in a military prison after his surrender Monday.

Dönmez has nothing to do with Susurluk. He is an Ergenekon suspect. In the meantime, two lieutenant colonels and four active officers who were detained in the 10th wave of arrests regarding the cell houses are also Ergenekon suspects.

Forget that the Ergenekon has turned a shipwreck, but it is on shore on the contrary. Arms and exclusives unearthed are the weapons of sabotage and assassination, so there is nothing to joke about and say "this is a treasure hunt."

The Ergenekon probe has reached to a point in the last 48 hours that it cannot be covered by hook or by crook.

At this point, questions are more than answers. But if you try to make up questions for the answers already given or if you make others to suspect about your ability to perceive the issue or if you nurture unnecessary reservations, let’s forget about all and try to tackle with the questions waiting for answers. The following is a question one naturally is preoccupied with:

Lt. Col Dönmez escaped from the police and the Ergenekon prosecutors for over two days.

He knew while he was a "fugitive" that the sketch for the underground ammunition stack in the Sincan district of Ankara was confiscated with 22 hand grenades found in his Sapanca house. Still, he ran away. With whom and about what he got in touch for two days?

I believe the Ergenekon probe will ask this question and seek for answers.

This is not a joke. Weapons are being unearthed not the treasure. Everywhere is full of explosives; underground is filled with weapons.

Who knows what we will have after more excavations. There must be some people who erased the serial numbers of weapons found and then buried them into deep for a purpose to use them at a later point. Organization of such people is called the "Ergenekon;" I mean this is not a complex issue. Given that 17,000 people were killed by unknown perpetrators, so many received death threats, lists of traitors were prepared in several military quarters by some who were busy with coup attempts and that evidence pile up based on the 10th wave of arrests, we can have an idea about what the "Ergenekon" is.

Is the involvement of professors, authors, high-level public authorities in such an organization possible? Who could believe this? Is it possible to explain a probe on these figures as nothing but "revenge" of the government? Yes it is. This is reasonable and can be explained.

If you read the headlines of five months ago, between Aug. 6 and 12, in the Radikal daily, you could find answers to the above questions through the Ergenekon probe. Let’s remember the headline in the Aug. 8, 2008 copy in particular: "Critical documents to freeze ’Coup Diaries’ out."

The following remarks on July 15 to 16, 2008, in one of the meetings convened for a coup attempt were in the spot: "Prime Minister should be insulted in private meetings. Prominent figures of laic circles such as the Chairman of the Higher Education Council, or YÖK, and President of Istanbul University should be supported and visited..."

The critical documents freezing "Coup Diaries" out were published in sequel for a week. And they were pointing out to the "Coup Diaries." Action plans code named as the "Gold Coin" and the "Moonlight" were prepared in the 2003 meetings for coup attempts in order to be actualized in 2004. A couple of "civilian" figures involved in the Ergenekon investigation at some point are included in these "action plans" or their names are mentioned in them.

If you ask "what do they have to do with the Ergenekon?" you better read the "Coup Diaries" then you will understand.

There is no need to ask some silly questions, like "Were they to make the coup with the ’ammunition’ unearthed?" Important "civilian" figures were supposed to function as those who would prepare the environment. Sabotages and assassinations to be committed with the ammunition confiscated today were supposed to prepare the physical environment. Of course the coup was not to be attempted by these figures nor was it not to be made by that "ammunition."

If the Ergenekon investigation can bring the "Coup Diaries" together with the said "critical documents" freezing out the "Coup Dairies," it will reach the target because the weapons and explosives unearthed are not leading the Ergenekon case to the Susurluk incident, as it is thought.

Let’s go back to the beginning. The Ergenekon case especially since the last 48 hours has been following the route to a "marriage with the Coup Dairies" and got a divorce from the Susurluk incident.