TUMBLING DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

"I imagine that right now you're feeling a bit like Alice. Tumbling down the rabbit hole?"
~ Morpheus, The Matrix.

Having reviewed a number of news links from last week on the Ergenekon case, I decided that the one to devote time to, was the one by Taraf's Yasemin Çongar, from 30 July, titled: "Deniz Baykal is also in Ergenekon's schema".

Taraf created a stir earlier this summer when it published the details of TSK's "Information Support Activity Plan". A few days after the news broke, Yasemin Çongar gave a summarized explanation of the plan in an interview with Spiegel Online. Taraf also broke the news about TSK's blundering of the Dağlıca raid, as discussed at Azadixwaz. Then there was the revelation in Taraf that Turkish constitutional court judge Osman Paksüt held several secret meetings with very-soon-to-be chief of the Turkish general staff, İlker Başbuğ. Paksüt was one of the judges hearing the for-show-only AKP closure case.

Taraf has been doing what journalists are supposed to be doing, exposing the ugly underbelly of political machinery. That's one big reason why I chose to work on Çongar's discussion of the CHP chairman's name in the Ergenekon lists.

Much has been made in the last few weeks in the Turkish media about alleged links between PKK and Öcalan and the Ergenekon gang; however, aside from an Ergenekon plan called "The Antidote", linked to Veli Küçük and, in the indictment (first part, pages 120-121), also linked to Ümit Oğuztan, there is no other mention of Abdullah Öcalan, in the first part of the indictment. "The Antidote" was a scheme by Ergenekon to take over control of the PKK through Öcalan, although the time frame involved here appears to be since Öcalan's incarceration at Imralı. There is no evidence presented in the indictment that "The Antidote" was carried out. Linked to the information on "The Antidote", is more information from a now deceased Ergenekon member, Kuddusi Okkır, that Ergenekon had other plans consistent with "The Antidote" in every way except for the mention of Öcalan or PKK. The consistency according to these plans was that Ergenekon envisioned "seeding" all kinds of state organizations--"from the Army to MİT, from the police to the Diyanet, from the judiciary to the state . . . "--and thereby takeover the TC.

Let me reiterate: There was only one of these plans, "The Antidote", that mentioned PKK as a target of Ergenekon "seeding," and there is no mention of evidence showing that any kind of "seeding" was actually carried out within PKK or with Öcalan. If there were a concrete cooperation between Ergenekon and PKK, as Turkish media asserts, then why would Veli Küçük need to covertly attempt to create a "linkage" with PKK by sending spies to take over the organization or gain Öcalan's consent for such a scheme? Cooperation is between two willing parties, but to have to create "linkage", as mentioned in the indictment, indicates that there is resistance to any cooperation on the part of the PKK.

The one hard piece of evidence cited is a very old, widely published photo of Serok Apo with Doğu Perinçek, the chairman of the Workers' Party, who has been indicted as an Ergenekon member. An old article of Perinçek's from 1995, in which he describes what should be the Workers' Party approach to the Kurdish situation is also available online. However, the fact that the photo of Öcalan and Perinçek was widely published proves nothing of a PKK link to Ergenekon. If anyone wants to go down that road, they will have to link Mehmet Ali Birand, Nazlı Ilıcak, Cengiz Çandar, Ahmet Altan, and Yasemin Çongar herself, among others, with the Ergenekon lists because all of them have interviewed either Öcalan or members of KCK's executive council at one time or another. But those people are not named in the lists. If they were, Yasemin Çongar would have found her name in the lists, along with the other famous Taraf journalist, Ahmet Altan, and she would have written her own defense instead of raising questions about Deniz Baykal's place on the list.

It would appear, however, that the lies surrounding the issue of "The Antidote" stem from Tuncay Güney, a one-time, small-time journalist in whose possession the original Ergenekon documents were found in 2001. Güney has been linked to Fethullah Gülen and Gülen's Samanyolu TV. Güney claims to have brought the photos of Öcalan and Perinçek to MİT. He claims to have taken a bribe of $15,000 to PKK in order not to shut down Gülen's schools in Hewler, although how PKK would have had any control over anything in Hewler is a huge question. Perhaps the KDP took the bribe by introducing themselves as PKK members? Güney also claıms to have delivered money from Fethullah Gülen to ultra-fascist Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu so that he could establish the BBP.

Zaman has some additional weird tidbits about Güney:

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Yeni Şafak daily, Tuncay Güney, a former journalist whose ties with various secret services, both domestic and international, have been documented, stated that Kurdish separatist terrorism would come to an end if the Ergenekon gang wanted that to happen. Güney, who now lives in Canada and works as a rabbi, has suspected ties to the group. Güney came to prominence when the first documents related to the Ergenekon gang were seized on his computer in a 2001 police raid.

Güney, currently a rabbi at the Jacobs House Jewish Community Center in Toronto, praised Ergenekon prosecutor Zekeriya Öz for having “done a great job” so far in the investigation, although he expressed doubts that the operation would be very successful in the end. “However, they are very close to the end and I think it is very difficult moving on further from this point. There is no power in Turkey that can stop Ergenekon,” he said, expressing doubts that the investigation will bring about the collapse of the crime group.

A check of YouTube reveals that Güney does, in fact, appear to be a member of an Orthodox Jewish community in Toronto, although he now denies any connection with Fethullah Gülen, as his appearance on Mehmet Ali Birand's 32. Gün indicates. If the first Ergenekon documents were found in Güney's possession, why has he not been indicted? Did he cut a deal and, if so, what kind of deal was it? Is his life now, in an Orthodox Jewish community in Toronto some kind of strange "witness protection" program?

Furthermore, during the 1990s, many who were named in Ergenekon's indictment were holding meetings with PKK and presenting themselves as active representatives of the TC, and PKK tried to negotiate with them in good faith with that representation. These meetings were held in order to reach a solution to the Kurdish situation, as discussed earlier this week on Özgür Gündem. As ÖG points out throughout the article, such meetings were publicized by the media forerunners of ÖG. It is impossible to blame PKK for having a connection with those people as members of a covert "terrorist" organization, when PKK accepted them as authentic representatives of government holding the power to carry out sincere negotiations, and that's with an authenticity that those people themselves presented as legitimate.

Finally, the almost 2,500-page Ergenekon indictment has been released to the public, Word document here or at Hürriyet. If there were a concrete relationship between Öcalan or the PKK, and Ergenekon, there would be plenty of ammunition to fill pages and pages of daily publications and hours and hours of broadcast airtime. But there is nothing . . . except an old photo that, for years before anyone knew the name "Ergenekon", has been widely available to anyone who can search Google, and a plan, unimplemented, called "The Antidote".

Instead, here is a summary of the indictment contents by Nabi Yağcı at TDN:

Although I wrote repeatedly that I had no doubts about some coup preparations, frankly I was not expecting such a loaded Ergenkon indictment and that the prosecutors can dare a thorough investigation. I think that's why the indictment caused a “shock” in the press. We had already heard so many matters, relations or incidents long before the indictment was publicly announced. But still, this indictment is shocking not because of its being an in-depth examination or not because of the well-known personas involved in this suit.

[ . . . ]

In short, my first impression of the indictment was first of all that the likelihood of a coup was so high, and secondly I was struck by its content. There are clear signs about the Susurluk and Şemdinli incidents. Although the indictment does not directly include the murders by unknown perpetrators in the Southeast, they were pointed out too. We see that some of the Ergenekon leaders are trained for operations against Kurds in the Southeast. This will be extremely important in the public eye. The indictment reaches the murders of Hrant Dink, Necip Hablemitoğlu and Uğur Mumcu, the Council of State attack, and even Cyprus.

Again, no mention of cooperation between Öcalan or PKK and Ergenekon.

Now, on to Yasemin Çongar's editorial piece, from Taraf:

Deniz Baykal Is Also in Ergenekon's Schema


Previously, we had written an article headlined in Taraf.

One part of the article, written on 11 July 2008, was as follows:

************

"It was about five years ago.

"The Turkish National Intelligence agency (MİT) sent a top secret report to the Prime Ministry.

"The topic was Ergenekon.

"MİT's document included the Ergenekon gang's schema, and this organization's investigation was requested.

"In the organization's schema, dated 2003, there were politicians', businessmen's, and journalists' names [listed] as Ergenekon members.

"Among the politicians, a party's chairman's name grabs attention.

"In the gang's list of journalists, a general editor of a big news daily, its Ankara representative, and a very popular journalist are listed.

"Among Ergenekon's businessmen, there were [listed] both industrialists and media bosses, too.

"It cannot be proof that those people on the Ergenekon lists were doing anything for Ergenekon, either consciously or unconsciously.

"But, it shows this:

"A series of names who are active today in politics, business, and media, were reported by MİT to the Prime Ministry that they might have a relationship with Ergenekon and should be investigated.

"MİT collected intelligence about Ergenekon, which is thought of as a "legend" by some people, conveyed this suspicion and intelligence, to the Prime Ministry with the emphasis that it should be investigated.

"I'm not going to write the names, in order not to implicate anyone.

"I will just let it go at this: the Prime Ministry conveyed this document on 2 July 2008 to the people who are responsible for the investigation of Ergenekon."

************

It was reflected in the indictment like this

Two weeks after the publication of this article [referring to the schema article above], and the headline in Taraf as "MİT has Ergenekon's organizational schema", the Ergenekon indictment was released.

On pages 49 and 50 of the indictment, the information which Taraf published was evaluated under the title, "MİT Undersecretariat's Report Regarding the Ergenekon Terrorist Organization".

In short, the MİT Undersecretariat presented this document, the information for which was received by an unknown source in 2002, and is considered as a booklet that contained information characteristic of an indictment, first, in 2003, to the General Staff, then to the Prime Ministry, and a summary of the study was sent to the Prime Ministry and General Staff again in 2006, as stated by the Ergenekon indictment.

The indictment, in this same section, gives a large quotation from a writing that was sent in 2003 from MİT to the Prime Ministry.

In this quote, under "Conclusions", MİT's evaluation is quoted as follows:

"Based on current information, though we are not certain, we have the impression that the works that are being implemented using the name "Ergenekon" are the endavours for organizing a group which targets "state/regime" for their own benefits."

"However, the information came about in an indictment form from various sources that are parallel and consistent with each other, gives meaning that is more than gossip, and it indicates the signs of a directed and organized activity.

"For this reason, the current information about the [indicates that the] subject aims to gain control over civilian will covertly, and the creation of a new administration with a new formation under the directed control of cadres of people who have a military origin, using some non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and political parties as well as the media."

The related part in the indictment concludes as "Ergenekon is identified as an illegal organization by MİT Undersecretariat itself and this has been recorded with an official report".

The names that MİT conveyed

Yesterday, we discussed CHP chairman Deniz Baykal's group speech in Taraf's editorial section.

He seemed like a "deep" attorney; he had a shallow defense.

He was targetting the Ergenekon prosecutors directly; he was belittling the indictment.

In one part of his speech, he used this ironic phrase: "According to the indictment, Ergenekon has a long history; however, MİT is unaware of this."

Actually Baykal's words were no different than the other volunteer gang attorneys' writings, who try to blacken the Ergenekon case.

Again, we had a hard time understanding the intention of his words, [coming from someone] whom we know as a pro-state party leader, which seemed to support an organization that the state's MİT and several more state departments, including TSK, think it would be beneficial to investigate this organization.

We thought Baykal was defending not the state, but the "Deep State".

With this thought, today while preparing our first page of the newspaper, we learned that the MİT report that I wrote an article about on 11 July, would be among the annexes of the Ergenekon indictment, which would be released on 1 August.

We remembered that among the politicians linked to the organization, the political party leader Deniz Baykal existed in the schemas of the annexes of the mentioned document [the report from MİT] in 2003, named "Ergenekon".

We don't know whether Baykal or the people listed in the MİT document that will be released on Friday, have any link with Ergenekon.

However, as I mentioned on 11 July, all we can say is "it is reported from MİT to the Prime Ministry that today there are names that are active in the political arena, business, and media, that might be linked to Ergenekon".

Based on the details in the indictment, we learn that this claim might have been conveyed to MİT by an unknown source.

Maybe this claim is not true, but it is obvious that MİT felt compelled to report this schema to the Prime Ministry in 2003.

In addition, a summary of the study was resent to the Prime Ministry in 2006; the General Staff also received the same reports in 2003 and 2006.

Inevitably, one gets curious:

What did the Ergenekon prosecutors, who are aware of these reports, the schemas, the lists of names, think about Deniz Baykal's severe criticism against them?

And I wonder whether or not Baykal knew there were documents about his links with Ergenekon, when he first started acting like Ergenekon's attorney?

And I wonder why the first Ergenekon documents were found in 2001, another anonymous source gave information in 2002, MİT notified Erdoğan and the TSK in 2003 and again in 2006, and nothing was acted upon until 2008? I wonder why the Ergenekon investigation only began in earnest in July 2007, with the discovery of Ergenekon's weapons cache in Istanbul Ümraniye, during the same month as the last general elections and two months after the May 2007 Dolmabahçe Deal between Erdoğan and Büyükanıt? I wonder why only those well-known as Deep Staters have been indicted and not the entire, active organization?

And I wonder how deep the rabbit hole really goes?