Ergenekon At Home, Ergenekon in the World
Many of us in Turkey are used to the tactics employed by the Ergenekonians and so are not negatively influenced by them. All we now need is to get a judicial verdict from the courts to substantiate what we already know. But in many Muslim countries, old and dirty Ergenekonian tactics have been employed to suppress democratic pluralism and in most cases the finger of blame is wrongly directed at innocent civilians.
In the Turkish context, we now know that people who have vested interests in the status quo and detest democracy, pluralism and transparency have staged psychological warfare against the population to convince them that there has been a clear and present danger to the state resulting from the activities of the so-called obscurantist, militant Islamic groups, whereas in actual fact there has never been such a credible threat. The Ergenekonians assassinated several popular public figures who were known for their anti-Islamic views to convince the public how terribly dangerous these Islamic militants were. The state's security forces have been "unable" to catch these real culprits. However, a 2006 Council of State incident changed everything completely.
A chamber of the Council of State issued a controversial verdict against the headscarf. The public began discussing the issue. The notorious Vakit daily published pictures of the court's judges. Then, someone, pretending to be an Islamist who was ostensibly under the influence of Vakit daily's coverage of the issue and the then-prime minister's negative comments, rushed into the courtroom with a gun and began shooting at the judges who issued the verdict, killing one of them.
All CCTV cameras were "conveniently" taken to be serviced by one of the army's companies that day and the murderer was not recorded. But he was not lucky -- unlike many of his predecessors, who assassinated public figures and evaporated into oblivion. A hero policeman risked his life, jumped on the murderer and made history. Today, we all know that the murderer was not an Islamist but a member of the ultranationalist and secularist Ergenekon terrorist organization and that he had previously thrown grenades at the anti-Islam Cumhuriyet daily to make us believe that secularism was in danger in the country.
He continued to play his role in the courtroom and tried to convince us that he was ordered by some bearded old man to kill the judges. He even said he also likes Fethullah Gülen and sent Mr. Gülen his greetings from the courtroom. But no one, including the court in Ankara, believed him as the evidence strongly showed the direction of Ergenekon. The bearded old man was acquitted but the court did not go as far as unearthing the Ergenekon gang. The İstanbul court dealing with the Ergenekon case will hopefully look at that aspect. At the moment, the criminals are guilty as charged in the eyes of the public. We also all know that many big bosses -- at home and abroad -- will never be brought to justice. But they will hopefully never be able to play their dirty games again.
Yet, people in many Muslim countries are not that lucky. Oppressive dictators and their international supporters continue exaggerating the radical and militant Islamic threat myth and play the Ergenekonian-like games in those countries. They never find difficulty in finding a few long-bearded terrorists to substantiate their claims. Instead of exterminating these militants, somehow these dictators let them talk and continue to suppress the overwhelming majority of mainstream apolitical Muslims. One can always find some neocon reports by figures also well known in Turkey backing the policies of the Ergenekonians in these countries.
Who knows if the İstanbul court will reach a verdict against the Turkish Ergenekon, it may serve as a precedent and case law in other Muslim countries.
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