In case you have missed it, here is a brief definition of Ergenekon. The term actually comes from an ancient Turkish legend, but it has become much more relevant to contemporary politics from about a year ago. On June 12, 2007, the police found dozens of grenades and other explosives in an Istanbul apartment. Following the links, they soon reached a nationalist gang which was apparently planning to use these weapons, and perhaps others, against the “enemies of the state.” Dozens of people were arrested and some of the information acquired from them pointed out that these people had established a network called “Ergenekon” in order to “save” Turkey from the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government, the European Union process, and all the liberal reforms.

Turkey’s Propaganda Due?

Another important piece of evidence came from the “coup diaries” of former Navy Commander Özden Örnek. These personal notes, which somehow leaked to the press from his personal computer, showed that a few generals planned a military coup as early as 2004, since they were so frustrated by the “treacherous” policy of the “Islamist” AKP government in Cyprus. Having failed to get support from other generals, and especially the top one, the then Chief of Staff Gen. Hilmi Özkök, these generals decided to work “from the bottom to the top.” Their idea was to provoke the society, rally the secularist and nationalist NGOs, and prepare the ground for a military coup. Ergenekon was, according to this theory, what they organized to achieve this end. They, apparently, were the masterminds behind crimes such as the murder of Hrant Dink, the liberal Turkish-Armenian journalist, and the shoot out in Danıştay, the Council of State, which was designed to look like an act of Islamist violence.

If all this is true, the Ergenekon is something like the Propaganda Due, or P2, which was an extreme right-wing covert network that traumatized Italy until its discovery in 1981. And its unraveling can only be a blessing for Turkey’s democracy.

But we don’t know for sure whether all this is true. The evidence so far has persuaded many liberals — some secular and some religious — but what is important is, of course, what the prosecutors will find out and what the courts will decide upon.

Therefore, it is only natural, and actually welcome, that the Ergenekon investigation has been broadened the other day. The arrest and questioning of the two retired generals, and especially of Şener Uygur, who was apparently right at the center of all the coup plans of 2004 and 2005, was actually most needed. Yesterday’s news hints that the Istanbul prosecutors who had ordered these arrests are almost finished with their indictment, which will be out in a few days. These recent arrests and searches, it seems, were to give them the final pieces of information they needed.

The Revenge of The AKP?

Despite all that, quite many people are furious with the arrests. They ask how such “eminent figures” can be arrested at all. They argue this is the “revenge” that the AKP government is trying to take from its secularist opponents. Republican People’s Party, or CHP, leader Deniz Baykal, as usual, is most insensible and rants about “the methods of Hitler and Stalin.”

This is all nonsense. First of all, it is not the AKP government that is leading this investigation and thus ordering these arrests. It is a group of Istanbul prosecutors, who are, by definition, independent. And it is funny that all those commentators who asked us to “respect the judicial process” vis-à-vis the closure case of the AKP are now rallying against another judicial process.

Secondly, if the AKP government wanted to strike back those who wished to take it down, it would first try to introduce a constitutional amendment that would minimize the power of the Constitutional Court, and thus save itself from the closure case. Quite the contrary, AKP has been quite “reconciliatory” since the beginning of the closure case. There is no point for them to “hit back” in a way which will not make their life easier in the Constitutional Court. Some conspiracy theorists say, “It is no accident that the arrest took place on the day that the chief prosecutor would speak against the AKP at the Constitutional Court.” If the arrest had taken place a few days earlier, I bet they would say, “It is no accident that the arrest took place a few days ago.” Despite the presumption of the conspiracy theorists, most things in the world are accidents.

There is also no point in asking “how such respectable people can be arrested.” In a country governed by the rule of law, everybody can be arrested and questioned if there are serious signs showing that they are involved in a criminal organization. I don’t mean that the gentlemen under arrest are such criminals, and I hope that they are not, but it is the job of the prosecutors and judges to decide upon these questions.

At the end of the day, there is not much to worry about. If all these names are innocent, then it is good for them; they will be cleansed of charges. If they really had links with this coup-stirring gang, then it will be good for Turkey to have revealed that.

And, besides everything else, Turkish prosecutors have taken a step forward for our democracy by daring to question two top generals. For a long time, we have seen them as untouchable. Yet they are, like the rest of us, only mortals.