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Knock on the door..
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Knock Knock Knock. It was neither the milkman, nor the postman knocking on the doors of dozens of people in what appeared to be a police operation launched simultaneously in six provinces, including the three biggest cities Ankara, Istanbul and İzmir as part of a country-wide investigation ordered by an Istanbul court into a purported plot to topple the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government.
But, unlike the previous detention waves that were carried out within the framework of the "Ergenekon" investigation this time there was no midnight ambush on residences and offices of the people taken under detention. Police knocked on the doors of around 40 people including two retired four-star generals, one of them a former National Security Council, or MGK, secretary-general, several active but junior officers, a former Court of Appeals chief prosecutor, a former president of the Higher Education Council, or YÖK, and a leading socialist professor who have been boasting to have been one of the leaders of the student unrest of the 1950s that resulted with the first-ever military takeover of the republican political history.
The so-called "Ergenekon" investigation, that has been hailed by pro-government circles, supporters of political Islam in the country and some neo-liberals as an unprecedented step to combat rogue elements of the state intervening illegally in national politics while condemned by secularists, patriots and Kemalists as a revanchist campaign of the AKP aimed at silencing and pacifying its political opponents, has been continuing on well over 19 months and some 86 defendants are facing court since October for alleged membership in Ergenekon and plotting to topple the ruling AKP government while indictment against scores of other detained defendants, including two former four-star generals, is still pending.
Revenge of Feb. 28?
Jubilation was noticeable in the broadcasts of the pro-government liberal and Islamist TV stations as the latest wave of detentions within the scope of the Ergenekon probe appeared to be a revenge to a 1997 "post-modern coup" or the so-called "Feb. 28 process" that forced out the first-ever Islamist-led government of the country headed by Necmettin Erbakan. The Feb. 28 process not only forced Erbakan to step down from the prime ministry but subsequently his Welfare Party, or RP, was closed down by the Constitutional Court on grounds of failing to conform to the secularism principle of the modern Turkish republic. After RP’s closure political Islam established the Fazilet (Virtue) Party, or FP, which was also closed by the Constitutional Court again for violating the secularism principle. The Feb. 28 process and the closure of the RP and then the FP, led to a split in the political Islam movement in the country with the so-called "reformist wing" establishing today’s AKP and the conservatives loyal to Erbakan forming the Saadet (Felicity) Party, or SP.
Fact or fiction?
It is clear that something strange is happening in Turkey for the past 19 months. Is this process really a hunt for some rogue elements of the state who have made it a habit to intervene in politics, or is this a plot aimed at silencing and pacifying the opposition against the Islamist AKP governance in the country or is it a move aimed at tarnishing the "most trusted state element" status still enjoyed by the Turkish military? Or, as many opponents claim, is this a plot within the Wider Middle East Plan of Washington that considers Turkish patriotism as an obstruction to converting Turkey into an exemplary "moderate Islamic nation" model against radical Islam? Or, are these irrational detentions part of a plot to provoke the Turkish military, undertake yet another intervention in politics and kill the already dim European Union prospects of the country all together.
While it is obvious that there might be some real criminals among the people detained over the past 19 months, it is a fact as well that the detained people is a composition who do not have almost anything in common other than being patriots and strong opponents of the AKP. What is crystal clear, at least to this writer, is that the entire Egenekon case reflects a power struggle between the political Islam or the AKP and the secularist modern Turkish republic. The eventual outcome will define whether Turkey will continue tilting toward becoming an autocratic but sui-generis Muslim country, or a modern republic anchored to the West.
The so-called "Ergenekon" investigation, that has been hailed by pro-government circles, supporters of political Islam in the country and some neo-liberals as an unprecedented step to combat rogue elements of the state intervening illegally in national politics while condemned by secularists, patriots and Kemalists as a revanchist campaign of the AKP aimed at silencing and pacifying its political opponents, has been continuing on well over 19 months and some 86 defendants are facing court since October for alleged membership in Ergenekon and plotting to topple the ruling AKP government while indictment against scores of other detained defendants, including two former four-star generals, is still pending.
Revenge of Feb. 28?
Jubilation was noticeable in the broadcasts of the pro-government liberal and Islamist TV stations as the latest wave of detentions within the scope of the Ergenekon probe appeared to be a revenge to a 1997 "post-modern coup" or the so-called "Feb. 28 process" that forced out the first-ever Islamist-led government of the country headed by Necmettin Erbakan. The Feb. 28 process not only forced Erbakan to step down from the prime ministry but subsequently his Welfare Party, or RP, was closed down by the Constitutional Court on grounds of failing to conform to the secularism principle of the modern Turkish republic. After RP’s closure political Islam established the Fazilet (Virtue) Party, or FP, which was also closed by the Constitutional Court again for violating the secularism principle. The Feb. 28 process and the closure of the RP and then the FP, led to a split in the political Islam movement in the country with the so-called "reformist wing" establishing today’s AKP and the conservatives loyal to Erbakan forming the Saadet (Felicity) Party, or SP.
Fact or fiction?
It is clear that something strange is happening in Turkey for the past 19 months. Is this process really a hunt for some rogue elements of the state who have made it a habit to intervene in politics, or is this a plot aimed at silencing and pacifying the opposition against the Islamist AKP governance in the country or is it a move aimed at tarnishing the "most trusted state element" status still enjoyed by the Turkish military? Or, as many opponents claim, is this a plot within the Wider Middle East Plan of Washington that considers Turkish patriotism as an obstruction to converting Turkey into an exemplary "moderate Islamic nation" model against radical Islam? Or, are these irrational detentions part of a plot to provoke the Turkish military, undertake yet another intervention in politics and kill the already dim European Union prospects of the country all together.
While it is obvious that there might be some real criminals among the people detained over the past 19 months, it is a fact as well that the detained people is a composition who do not have almost anything in common other than being patriots and strong opponents of the AKP. What is crystal clear, at least to this writer, is that the entire Egenekon case reflects a power struggle between the political Islam or the AKP and the secularist modern Turkish republic. The eventual outcome will define whether Turkey will continue tilting toward becoming an autocratic but sui-generis Muslim country, or a modern republic anchored to the West.
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