Bingo! Ersöz netted

In the July 1 wave of Ergenekon-related detentions he could not be found. It was reported at the time that he was in Russia. Contacting news people by telephone he at the time said he was in Moscow for business and that within next 10 days or so he would be back and turn himself in for interrogation. He never did that.

Apparently, he returned to Turkey in November with a fake Ukranian passport. Reportedly he entered the country from the Zonguldak port and met at the port and escorted to Ankara by a gendarmerie noncommissioned officer SG, who is claimed to have been serving at the Kırşehir Gendarmerie Garrison. According to allegations, the fugitive retired general did not go to his residence, but instead went to the house of his alleged mistress, a Ukranian woman who has acquired Turkish nationality.

Wholesale character assassination

Interesting enough, the capture of Ersöz came only a day after several hours of taped interrogation of Tuncay Güney, the fake rabbi living now in Canada and on his allegations the entire Egenekon case is claimed to have been established, was leaked to the entire media in total violation of secrecy of investigation principle and despite withdrawal by Güney himself of the entire testimony. Why that tape was released?

Why it was released in full and through Güney’s mouth so many retired generals, academics and journalists were implicated once again of being members or leaders of the so-called Ergenekon gang. Güney’s testimony was a wholesale character assassination effort.

This is apparently a systematic effort. All through this, Ergenekon business we keep on encountering character assassination moves. In the Ersöz capture case as well we saw a similar effort. It was of course none of our, and by the way police’s or prosecutor’s, business whether or not Ersöz was a devoted husband loyal to his wife or had an extramarital affair. Why from the first moment of his capture police sources informed the media about his "Ukranian mistress" who had acquired Turkish nationality? Obviously, we were faced once again with an act of character assassination.

On the other hand, we have witnessed a successful and for a change full compliance of police and the office of prosecutor inquiring the Ergenekon case with the procedures of trial. No one can object the detention of retired general Ersöz by police and the likely court order for his arrest within days.

He was on the run for so long, did not turn himself in, was traveling with a fake passport and even applied to a hospital with a fake ID and thus there are sufficient reasons to believe that if he is released he might try to escape justice once again.

Even though no one can claim from now what will be the court verdict against him and technically until the end of his trial he must be considered "non-guilty" it is obvious that his lawyers will have great difficulty in finding some valid reason to demand his release.

The capture of Ersöz is definitely a success of the police intelligence and hopefully will help speed up the Ergenekon case. One may assume that as he tried to escape justice for so long he might have something to hide from the court.

Without any doubt, within days, we will read about his testimony splashed on the front pages of some pro-government media, as it has become a tradition of the Ergenekon case to service the testimonies of the accused or the suspects to some selected newspapers and TV stations in total violation of the secrecy of the investigation principle.

If rule of law prevails and political manipulation of justice is ended perhaps we may have a clearer picture one day of what this Ergenekon business really is.