Political Prisoners or Plotters?
Just hours before Turkey’s top prosecutor presented arguments in court that the AK Party should be closed and 70 of its top officials, including Prime Minister Erdogan banned from politics, police took yet another 22 people into custody ostensibly for plotting to overthrow the government. Three others are still “at large,” but expected to be taken into custody soon.
People seized in this round include former generals Hursit Tolon and Sener Eruygur; Mustafa Balbay of the Cumhuriyet newspaper; Sinan Aygun, chair of the Ankara Chamber of Commerce; and Ecument Ovali, a college professor. Police in Turkey have, in total, arrested about 70 people in connection with the “Ergenekon” operation—allegedly a group conspiring to overthrow the government. In the meantime, journalists opposed to the AK Party have been harassed and many, if not most of those detained, are being held without charge.
Still, Europe supports the AK Party as “democractic” and “liberal”. Really? What democracy condones imprisoning people without charge for months on end? In which European country are such high profile arrests made without indictments or charges at the ready?
European news reports, swallowing the AK Party Karl Rovian propaganda hook, line and sinker, now regularly call those who believe in and support Turkey’s secular democracy “ultra-nationalists” and even “secular jihadis”—how is that for an oxymoron?
Are not the countries of Europe secular democracies? Or, have they become nation states that follow as the rule of law the teachings of their particular dominant religion’s bible? Did I miss something? Has the Pope once again become the reigning monarch of Catholic Europe?
Of course not, it’s just the same old familiar self-serving European hypocrisy. They’ve found a political party with weak leaders they can manipulate to achieve their own ends and don’t want anyone to oppose them—even if that party is turning Turkey into a police state.
Ergenekon is nothing more than an effort to weaken the Turkish military. Why would anyone want to weaken the Turkish military you ask. Well, for one, they will not stand for the partition of lands that lie within the sovereign borders of the Republic of Turkey (check out what the “Middle East Project” has in mind for about a third of the country). Nor does the military tolerate well foreign interference, especially in the form of inciting ethnic minority revolts, in the Republic’s internal affairs.
Much to the consternation of others used to brandishing power without opposition, the Turkish military remains the one institution in the Republic of Turkey that nation-states interested in controlling the balance of power in the middle east cannot manipulate with ease.
Wolfgang Piccolo, an analyst for the Eurasia Group, said in a report Tuesday that the timing of the arrests and the high profile of those seized reflects the political nature of the Ergenekon probe.
“Coming a few hours before the first hearing in the closure case against the AKP, the arrests will further reinforce the already widely shared impression in Turkey that the operation is part of the power struggle between the AKP and the hard-line secularists, most notably the military,” he said.
Yeah, no kidding. Definitely political prisoners.
Now, what would take some real cajones would be to arrest all the Constitutional Court judges that are going to render the decision in the closure case.
You are absolutely right! In my opinion, there is an internal fight between the "secularists" and "Islamists" (I am using these terminologies in the broader sense). The sad part is that, the Western powers namely EU, is supporting the anti-secularist and more Islamic lenient party, AKP. Shouldn’t it be the opposite? Shouldn’t a democratic and a western country have separation between religion and governmental politics? I cannot see any good come out of (however mild) religious rule. I also reject the idea that a Muslim country cannot be democratic. There is a claim that it’s against their nature. That is utterly a false statement, with a certain amount of biased. Having said that "the secularists" also needs to learn from this experience. They should stop electing fraudulent, useless and dishonest politicians who think they are fooling the general public….
nevbar, agreed that the corruption and fraud has to go. That, however, will most likely require a complete overhaul in how MPs are selected.
Party leaders should not be permitted to pick who sits in parliament. Each individual geographic political unit should be voting for specific representatives who live and are resident in that area. Only that way can they represent the tru interest of their constituents.
Allowing party leaders to pick and choose members of parliament from their party rosters creates a type of dictatorship in which all MPs are beholden to their party leader, whether that leader’s decisions are for the good of the country or only good to line his or her own pockets with gold–as they are doing now.
The entire system needs to be overhauled and better checks and balances put in place. Democracy promotes rule by those chosen by the majority, but it never allows tyranny of the minority.
One should also never forget, those who voted for the AK Party were a plurality, not a majority of the voting public. The majority of the voting public (53%) voted for other parties. Also, many secularists voted for the AK Party due to its message of moderation and tolerance, all of which it threw out the window once elected. That means it has now lost the support of those secularists.
No way, the AK Party could obtain 47% of the today except by stuffing ballot boxes, which many allege they did in July 2007 anyway.
Has the Pope once again become the reigning monarch of Catholic Europe?
In Italia, the center-left coalition failed because the government Prodi wanted creat a civil union for homosexuals and unmarried heterosexuals. The pope was, obviously, strongly against this project.
Are not the countries of Europe secular democracies?
Orthodox christianism is the State religion in Greece, Germany has signed concordats with the most important churches, the queen of England is the chief of the anglican church, etc.
The only secular republics in Europe are France, Turkey and Portugal. In others continents, i know only India as secular democracy.
The secularism is a rare value. It’s certainly sad, but it’s like that.
You believe in the greater Middle East project by neoconversatives/neocons/America and you also write for a neocon website which is pro-America! You also believe jews want to divide Turkey? hahaha.. funny guy!!!
Abdullah, several things:
1) The greater Middle East project is NOT an exclusively neocon project. It’s a project that aims to control the Middle East specifically in relation to energy and oil resources while trying to hold Fundamentalist Islam at bay via appeasing to the so-called "Moderate Islamists". Of course, AKP is falsely interpreted as THE Moderate Islamist party, and looked upon as some sort of an ideological "brother" within the Middle East and in the realm of Political Islam. In other words, AKP is seen as the perfect tool for the powers that be in order to promote self-serving agendas throughout the Middle East.
2) The Greater Middle East project fits perfectly with the self interests of a lot of nations apart from the US as well. THAT’s why you see a lot of European support in favor of AKP and in favor of the imaginary Ergenekon coup-plotters.
3) Both Republicans and Democrats of the U.S. have historically been equally interested in the Greater Middle East Project because the project aims to provide and maintain a pro-American status quo in the region.
4) Some Americans as well as Europeans are finally waking up to the bitter reality that AKP is NOT the kind of "Moderate Islamist" party that it claims to be. In fact, people are starting to get nervous that their firm support for AKP could very well become another "chickens coming home to roost" situation in terms of foreign policy on either side of the Atlantic.
5) There’s no mention of "Jews" in this article. The Greater Middle East project is NOT a "Jewish" project, it seems like you are trying to portray it as such via appealing to the well known Jewish-people-controlling-the-world stereotypes.
6) I don’t know how you got the idea that this site is a neocon website. Or that being pro-America is a neo-con thing to be. Is it the McCain endorsement of certain editors of this site that makes you think that this site is a neocon website?
7) Did you know that a sizable amount of Kemalist Turks are actually supporting John McCain because they believe that he will be a better president for Turkish interests in the region?
I didn’t know Kemalist Turks support McCain. Isn’t he one of the supporters of the "Middle-Eastern project"…… Let’s stay in muddy waters and continue to be hypocrites. Mr. Kemal is just so typical statist and Kemalist.
I said a sizable amount of Kemalist Turks supported McCain, that doesn’t mean all of them or most of them. So please don’t misquote what I said.
This should be a stunner for you: AKP also favors McCain over Obama. Of course Erdogan has recently made speeches as to how AKP was the guardian of secularism and Kemalism. So there you go more muddy waters for you. I guess if you can’t beat them, join them :))))
Abdullah, a fundamental value of democracy and free speech is the right to disagree openly without being imprisoned or fear of bodily harm.
In a mature democracy people learn to disagree without giving rise to violence or civil unrest.
Abdullah, you seem to be claiming that you support democracy and that, as an AKP supporter, you are not pursuing intolerant oppressive Sharia law.
If that is true, do you think you can find it within yourself to disagree with people who express opinions you disagree with without calling them names?
This tactic you use of waging personal attacks against those whose opinions you don’t like is typical of Erdogan and the AKP, as well as other inept politicans from other parties (and yes, including the CHP), and one of the reasons why Turkey’s populace is dividing along idealogical lines.
Great article Kemal. 9 journalists and a couple of 70 year old men doing a coup. They couldn’t even get past Taksim Square!! And no one can logically explain how the Workers Party, a far-leftist organization, and the Ankara Chamber of Commerce, an obviously capitalist organization, + nine journalists, came together to create an "armed terror organization" with the aim of "creating an armed rebellion against the state".. What a joke!!!
There was a good article on this by the Jamestown Foundation here: http://jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2373193
This operation called “Ergenekon” is an incredibly disgusting battle against believers of Freedom inside Turkey. The world should be outraged demanding the arrest of AK leaders.
There are so many arrested, with almost no real charges. The evidence doesn’t exist, habeas corpus seems lost.