Black Box, Agent of God or Deus Ex Machina?

After almost a century, Turkey has not achieved full democratization, or more correctly, a consolidation of its constitutional democracy, human rights and the supremacy and rule of law. This is not because its citizens have not accepted parliamentary and democratic traditions but because of the vested interests nestled in the establishment and their elitist counterparts in the military and civic bureaucracy cooperating with business owners and the media.

These interest groups continue their one-sided game and psychological warfare to mislead and misinform the public.

In the trial of the Ergenekon terrorist organization, 86 suspects have been indicted for establishing and managing an armed terrorist organization, inciting people to an armed revolt against the Turkish government, attempting to render the government dysfunctional, soliciting murder, procuring confidential documents, being members of a terrorist organization and providing weapons for the organization.

Interest groups first reacted to the case and trial as if it were all a farce or a joke. When the evidence against civilian and military personnel in Ergenekon mounted, interest groups responded by accusing the police, judges and prosecutors of being somehow deviant or "fundamentalist." They then gave credibility to implausible explanations of unauthorized ownership of top-secret documents, weapons, ammunition and monies as "personal collections" and "hobbies" or of those indicted "not knowing" how such incriminating evidence came into their possession.

In the latest tragicomic scene of the Ergenekon story, interest groups have brought their deus ex machina onto the stage to provide a sudden and unexpected solution to their difficulty, to resolve the plot and to extricate themselves from this difficult situation. This improbable character introduced suddenly into the Ergenekon saga "to untangle its history and structure" is Tuncay Güney.

The enigmatic veil over this character until now lent him great dramatic promise. The identity, intentions and deeds of Güney are all murky. From his own and his employer's remarks, it is obvious that he has been used by both Turkish and non-Turkish intelligence services, although he lately claims to be an "agent of God" rather than of any intelligence service. He may have been involved in all those dirty dealings with "pure intentions to serve his country." He may have been utilized by different groups and networks against one another within the deep state. His removal from the intelligence unit, moves to other states and acquisition of visas and finances to be kept abroad are mysterious indeed.

Ergenekon was known to have existed long before any documents were found on Güney's computer. Unresolved killings, political assassinations, smuggling and trafficking of humans, drugs and arms, exploiting state resources and benefiting from kickbacks, hidden funds and tender-bids, and state security personnel's involvement in organized crime over the past three decades all predate the discovery of Güney. It is stretching credulity to attribute the discovery of Ergenekon and its leaders to his efforts and to the files in the possession of "a temporary, bright but also dubious informant" employed and deployed by Turkish or other intelligence units. What power they attribute to their little wooden idol emerging from the machinery. But who carved him and how?

Güney and informants like him are driven to produce information or intelligence because they are keen to serve their country, ideology or religion, because they desire to attain better professional, financial or political status, or because they are simply striving to survive amongst clandestine intelligence networks after their initial involvement. As is commonly known, particularly since 9/11, intelligence is falsified, misinterpreted or invented by such informants all over the world. Güney seems to have provided information of a certain level to certain intelligence units.

However, we know that the claim that Güney provided video footage of Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen so that prosecutors would bring charges against him in 2002 is false because we already know very well exactly who produced, doctored and shared those cassettes with the media and prosecutors. It has been already acknowledged in Turkey and abroad that Gülen has always been against any ideological, violent and coercive means and ends and sees organizations like Ergenekon as cancerous tumors in human society.

Efforts to introduce Güney as if he were key to the Ergenekon case and to associate him with the scholar Gülen are part of an ongoing campaign to water down the Ergenekon trial rather than to disentangle or resolve it. No doubt there will now be an attempt to expand the trial with unsubstantiated evidence to such a level that the case will collapse as Güney, who has now been built up as the "black box" or deus ex machina of Ergenekon, fails to provide the vital information and evidence. It is also instructive to see how certain media organs in Turkey that have tried to discredit Güney for some time have suddenly shifted their stance and are now attempting to present him as the only reliable source. Such efforts are made, as ever, in order to protect the real Ergenekon organization formed within state-authorized organizations and to prevent the Turkish nation from seeing the real dimensions of the events taking place and from establishing full democracy.