soL English

The lawsuit known as “Operation Ergenekon” has started as a result of the investigation about the hand grenades found in a shanty house in Umraniye, Istanbul on June 12, 2007. So far more than 150 persons, including journalists, political party leaders, former and active army officers and intellectuals, have been charged with being member of a terrorist organization called Ergenekon, which seeks to overthrow the democratically elected government with a coup d’état.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has embraced the cause of the operation from its onset, and utilized the lawsuit as a means of attenuating people who oppose, even dislike the government under the rubric of a “threat of coup”. Moreover, the operation has been utterly useful for AKP government as a tour de force, for many sound recordings of those who used to occupy high posts in the bureaucracy have been publicized illegally within the course of operation, and even former army generals were arrested within its scope.

Beyond controversy, among the accused, there are those who are engaged in the activities of the counter-guerilla organization. However, certain sections of the counter-guerilla organization, especially the police department currently dominated by Islamist and pro-American sect called Fetullah Movement, has been left completely out of scope. On the contrary, by means of the operation any opposition to the policies of the US, NATO and the EU has been publicly declared per se as illegitimate attempts of those who are seeking for a coup.

Strikingly enough, Operation Ergenekon has gained pace especially after AKP’s victory in June 2007 elections, more specifically after the visit of Prime Minister Erdoğan along with the secretary general of the Turkish military general staff to the United States on November 2007.

The first indictment of the lawsuit consists of 2500 pages approximately, while the second indictment published on March 2009 includes 1900 pages more. Many specialists on law express that most of this massive amount of documents would not be included in a “serious lawsuit”, and furthermore, there have been many infractions of rules since the beginning of the lawsuit as well. Such criticisms directed against Operation Ergenekon underline that the lawsuit is explicitly politically orientated, and the major force behind it is the United States supporting AKP, as the operation serves perfectly well to the plans of purging any cadre within the state mechanism that might pose a problem to imperialist policies by seeking different options in foreign affairs, and also denouncing all forms of anti-imperialism as illegitimate, undemocratic and totalitarian in the public opinion.