But that is not the case at all. The common ideology of the Ergenekon folks is apparently a very fierce nationalism that borders on fascism. What has driven them mad is that the “Islamist” yet EU-friendly AKP (Justice and Development Party) government has implemented reforms which they see as “"treason."” Their main focus seems to be “saving Cyprus from the "Greek yoke,"” and keeping Turkey as militarist as possible. The secularism they aspire to is a one that goes hand-in-hand with this militant nationalism.

Enter Milli Çözüm

And now we even have reason to think that one does not have to be a secularist to join forces with Ergenekon. Last week, the “seventh wave” of arrests in the Ergenekon case took place, and among the detained were the editors of a marginal monthly called “Milli Çözüm,” or, The National Solution. Based in the conservative city of Konya, this was clearly an Islamist magazine, but was also staunchly nationalist and militarist.

Few Turks would know that this magazine even exists, but I was among the privileged for a good reason: The print edition has been mailed to me for quite a while, although I never subscribed to and paid for it. If it were mailed to me, it was probably mailed to others as well. And that implies that somebody must have given some considerable amount of money to this publication. In Turkey, such magazines often hardly make ends meet. Having enough money to throw away for such a marginal periodical points out to some extra-journalistic source of finance.

The real gem is the content of Milli Çözüm. It is a very curious blend of anti-Western radical Islamism and Kemalist militarism. The cover of its current July issue presents a must-see cartoon: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a donkey and the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is riding him. There is also a quote from Olmert, who is called "the arch-terrorist of Zionist Israel". "I am thankful to Erdoğan,”" Olmert reportedly said, “"He helps me a lot."

When you turn this creative cover, you come through a list of cheesy ideological tracts: In the pages of Milli Görüş, there are three pieces against the EU, one against the United States and Israel each, and another one which bashes the whole "Western civilization" as a "wild beast." On the other hand there are three pieces which defend the Turkish military from "unjust criticisms and heinous attacks." Three other pieces are dedicated to the life and views of Atatürk and explain how those were totally compatible with "Milli Görüş," the ideology of both the magazine and the Saadet (Felicity) Party.

News in Turkish press reported that the editors and writers of Milli Çözüm are indeed an offshoot of the Saadet Party, the one that is led by Necmeddin Erbakan and that got 2 percent of the votes in last year's general elections. Apparently the Milli Çözüm folks have broken with Erbakan's party because they found it too soft and silent. The AKP's founders, as you would know, had broken with Erbakan about a decade ago to head towards a liberal and democratic position. The Mili Çözüm folks seem to have gone the complete opposite way.

Yet they have not simply become radical Islamists, as they could well have been. They rather have become radical Islamists with a very strong, and very bizarre, touch of Kemalism.

The Real Axis

Therefore I wasn't too surprised when I saw the news relating to the arrest of the Milli Çözüm cadre for their alleged links with Ergenekon, which is accused of trying to bring Turkey to the brink of a military coup. I can't say anything about whether there are indeed criminal links between these groups, but the ideology they share is all too similar. Their aim is simply to keep Turkey as a closed society cut off from the world and ruled by an authoritarian state. What they fear and abhor is democratization and liberalization.

And from that point arises the real political axis in today's Turkey. The real question is whether Turkey will become a liberal democracy or stay as an illiberal autocracy with some face-saving democratic façade. It is true that the “Islamist” AKP government has been spearheading the democratization process – despite all its mistakes and shortcomings – since 2002, but there are also secular liberals who are on that good side. On the dark side, the secularist autocrats have joined forces with ultra-nationalists and, apparently, even the cranky radical Islamists like those of Milli Çözüm.