Were the conspiracies just the work of a handful of police officers, prosecutors, and judges?!

Two days ago marked the 11th anniversary of the conviction rulings in the Ergenekon conspiracy, a major milestone in handing over the entire country to the rule of a single person. Yet, even the vast majority of the victims who were held hostage in Silivri for years due to that conspiracy did not remember this historic day.

The day after August 5, when “FETÖ”-affiliated judges rained down sentences on 252 individuals, most notably the 26th Chief of General Staff İlker Başbuğ, the headlines of some newspapers that are still in publication and stand with the government were as follows:

Akşam: Crime and Punishment... Habertürk: 22 Life Sentences... Hürriyet: Life in Silivri... Milat: Terrorist Organization... Milliyet: Wave of Sentences... Sabah: Life Sentences for 19 Coup Plotters... Star: Life Sentence for the Deep State... Türkiye: Heavy Blow... Yeni Akit: Sentences Rained Down on the Junta... Yeni Şafak: Life Sentence for the Coup...

Beneath these cries of victory, comments were also made such as, “The book of the old Turkey has been closed, the path of the new Turkey is clear,” and “The judiciary did not bow to pressures and raids.”

One should not forget the rhetoric and joy of the politicians either.

Erdoğan, who had declared himself the prosecutor of the case from the very beginning, stated after the conviction rulings that the judicial process was ongoing and said, “We hope that justice is served properly,” while claiming that the then-CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s words, “I do not recognize the prosecutors of this court,” constituted “interference with the judiciary,” and that the statements of MHP Leader Devlet Bahçeli were very ugly.

Bülent Arınç, the government spokesperson of the time, who had praised the judges and prosecutors during the trial process with the words, “The whole of Turkey owes them a great debt in the name of democracy,” said after the verdict, “No one has the privilege to commit a crime. The judiciary made the most correct decision according to itself.”

AKP Spokesperson Hüseyin Çelik made the assessment, “Turkey had been under the threat of a coup for years. If mercy hinders justice, that mercy will breed harm. Showing mercy to a wolf is cruelty to a lamb.”

Erdoğan’s Chief Advisor Yalçın Akdoğan said, “The Ergenekon case is the name of the greatest legal reckoning in the history of the Republic... It is an important turning point for the future of Turkish democracy.” However, after the December 17-25 operations that took place 4 months after the verdict, it was again Akdoğan who was the first to admit that a conspiracy had been set up against the national army!..

Let us underline that the then-Minister of Justice Sadullah Ergin, who made the statement, “If there are those who are uncomfortable, they will seek their rights in a higher court. This decision will affect the future of Turkey,” was made a member of parliament from the CHP list in last year’s elections, and from Ankara Çankaya at that.

And what about the General Staff? After emphasizing that they “acted with patience, fortitude, composure, and common sense, and always avoided misunderstandings,” and stating that they shared the grief of their fellow soldiers and their families, they spoke of the “necessity of respecting the rule of law for the future, as has been the case until today.”

ZEKERİYA ÖZ AND THE "BANANA REPUBLIC"

One of the unforgettable actors of the Ergenekon conspiracy was the so-called prosecutor Zekeriya Öz. Did Erdoğan not allocate his armored vehicle, was it not requested that his statue be erected?!..

But he fled 2 years after the conviction rulings. He has been under Germany’s protection for 9 years. Following his escape, Erdoğan spoke as follows while announcing that a red notice would be issued for Öz:

“We will see what Germany does. If it doesn’t, Germany cannot take any criminal from us with Tayyip Erdoğan’s signature. Turkey is not a banana republic.”

The result; not only were we unable to get Öz back, but just 2 years after these words, Die Welt newspaper reporter Deniz Yücel, who had been arrested for “making propaganda for a terrorist organization and openly inciting the public to hatred and enmity” and whom Erdoğan had also called a “German agent,” was released on the day his indictment was accepted as a result of intense initiatives by German officials and sent to Germany by private jet.

40 DAYS PASSED, THEY WERE NOT ARRESTED

Following these brief reminders, let us share the latest developments regarding the Ergenekon judges and prosecutors who remained in Turkey and were arrested.

All of them were sentenced to various penalties for “membership in FETÖ,” and most have served their sentences and been released. Furthermore, lawsuits were filed against them for the crimes of “deprivation of liberty, misconduct in office, fabrication of evidence, forgery of official documents, and destruction of evidence.”

As a result of this case, which was heard in the 8th Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation in its capacity as a court of first instance and lasted approximately 6 years, on June 28, Hasan Hüseyin Özese, Fatih Mehmet Uslu, and Nihat Topal—who fled in plain sight while the trial was ongoing—were sentenced to 22 years and 6 months in prison each, and Hüsnü Çalmuk was sentenced to 21 years and 3 months, while key names, former prosecutor Mehmet Ali Pekgüzel, as well as Mehmet Murat Dalkuş and Mehmet Murat Yönder, were acquitted. Çalmuk, who was present in the courtroom, was arrested the same day and sent to Sincan Prison.

Let us note that the objections made through their lawyers against the arrest warrant for Fatih Mehmet Uslu and Nihat Topal, who it is understood have not yet been arrested despite the 40 days that have passed, have been rejected, and that Hasan Hüseyin Özese’s wife, as his guardian, has also requested that the conviction ruling be overturned and the arrest warrant be lifted.

WAS THERE NO "POLITICAL LEG"?

Another person who objected to these rulings was Hüseyin Buzoğlu, the lawyer for Ergün Poyraz, who spent exactly 7 years in prison during the Ergenekon conspiracy. Attorney Buzoğlu, who applied to the General Assembly of Criminal Chambers of the Court of Cassation on behalf of Poyraz and himself, did not only object to the conviction rulings from a legal perspective; he also requested that a criminal complaint be filed against other government members, primarily Erdoğan, who had responsibility in this conspiracy.

In his 42-page appeal petition, Attorney Buzoğlu recalled the cases opened against Fethullah Gülen since 1972 and the reports prepared by the MGK (National Security Council) and MİT (National Intelligence Organization), and emphasized the following:

“At the current stage, we are faced with a conclusion as if the components of the dirty alliance, the Fetullah Gülen Terrorist Organization to which the defendants belong, and the political power under the control of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, without any instructions, connections, or incitement, had somehow come together on their own—as if some members of the police and judiciary had spontaneously gathered to carry out the investigation and prosecution cycle known in the public eye as the Ergenekon Case; therefore, filing a criminal complaint by this Honorable Chamber against all relevant parties who had responsibility in the investigation and prosecution cycle known as the Ergenekon case and who ultimately constituted the ‘political leg’ of the Fetullah Gülen Terrorist Organization is a reason for its existence. Because, as is established by the scope of the file, if the requirements regarding Fethullah Gülen and his organization had been fulfilled in a timely manner by the appointed and elected officials in our country, and/or if judgments had been established by prosecutors' offices and courts in accordance with material realities, the organization would not have been able to weave its spider webs, it would not have been able to structure itself in the ‘judiciary, civil administration, and military’; constitutional institutions, the TSK (Turkish Armed Forces), and universities would not have fallen under the control of the organization, and the July 15, 2016, uprising would not have been encountered. Indeed, in the reasoned decision regarding the sentence given to Hüseyin Avni Mutlu and Hüseyin Çapkın, who served as Istanbul Governor and Police Chief, it was stated that failing to take the necessary action regarding the acts of Fethullah Gülen and his organization, given their positions, constituted a crime. Therefore, it cannot be claimed that a person in the position of Prime Minister was unaware of Fethullah Gülen’s acts. The statements made by the parties following the collapse of the dirty alliance do not eliminate the legal responsibilities of all the allies and the reality that they will be held accountable.”

Attorney Buzoğlu also noted that he made these findings “with the aim of contributing to investigations to be carried out in the future by the true Public Prosecutors of the Republic of Turkey.”

In short; we wanted to draw attention to how the “political leg” of the conspiracies, just like July 15, was forgotten and made to be forgotten!..