Ergenekon case and some lies

Orhan Kemal Cengiz

Since the beginning of the Ergenekon investigation there has been an intense propaganda war against the case. Some arguments may be changing, but some strategies and tactics have never changed.

There is still upfront denial about the very existence of this clandestine organization called Ergenekon. The very existence of the organization has been denied, while the Ergenekon lobby has found unimaginably shrewd explanations for whatever has been found during operations in this case. Weapons, ammunition, explosives, coup plans, organizational documents -- anything you can imagine -- has been whitewashed by the chorus.

In this propaganda war there are some basic premises they repeat in different forms. I can summarize these arguments as follows: a) In this case only people who are against the government and the Gülen movement are put on trial. b) All evidence is produced by the Gülenist police in the Security General Directorate. c) All prosecutors and judges arrange to put innocent people in prison. There are of course so many sub-arguments. For example, if police unearth large amount of explosives, they claim the very same police buried them. If there is a detailed coup plan and its working papers amount to thousands of pages, they claim every single page was written by the police.

In practice, this propaganda machine works in a talented and sophisticated way that makes it almost impossible for an ordinary person to see through this smoke.

Let us see how this propaganda machine works in practice. Last week police conducted searches in the houses and offices of some theology professors across the country. These people were included in the Ergenekon investigation for their alleged role in the bloody murder of three missionaries in Malatya in 2007. During and after these searches I tried to see how the Ergenekon-friendly press would cover these operations, and I really admired their huge success in creating a smoke screen through which you cannot understand anything.

One bit of news coverage focused on one professor and said that this professor had previously explained that a headscarf is not mandatory for women in Islam. They imply with this news that this professor may have been included in this operation because of his comment. Another very well known professor said he was writing a book about Fethullah Gülen. You could easily get the impression from this news item that this poor guy is just being persecuted for his holy war against Gülen.

What was amazing about all these manipulative news stories is that they do not reveal that these theology professors were very active in the creation of anti-missionary hysteria in Turkey during 2005 and 2006, and they were working in close contact with some JİTEM agents whose task was to create paranoia in Turkish society about missionaries.

In my last piece I tried to explain how a JİTEM officer joined the Protestant community in Turkey, even became a pastor, and then after receiving another order from his superiors he converted to “Muslimhood” once again; at the time he used to appear on TV channels every night together with the theology professors I mentioned above. These theology professors were just a part of the psychological warfare waged against missionaries that resulted in a massacre in 2007.

When I looked at my notes I came across the transcript of the words of the theology professor on TV in 2005, who now claims that he is being included in this investigation just because he is writing a book about Fethullah Gülen. He is talking about Turkish Christians:

“I see this as proof of the claims being made. It is in fact the case that the Republic of Turkey is under attack, and these are people we have lost. ... At this moment in each of Turkey’s provinces and counties, there are three or five or 10 churches that have been started. In these places there are -- not one, two, three, five or 10 but many -- Turks like these who have declared themselves to be priests. These people are undermining the Republic of Turkey. ... Something else: These people are enemies of the Turks. They are undermining us from within. They call Muslims and Turks “the seed of Satan.” In front of Christians, I mean, they are rejecting Muslims and Turks. These people have their roots outside of the country. There is a fifth estate operation directed against Turkey. There is a psychological operation. There is an operation to destroy us, to subjugate us from within. They are also destroying our national identity. They continue to steal our people. They see our people as Satan’s seed, infidels, atheists. The real atheists, the real infidels, the real seed of Satan are those who taunt Muslims; in particular, these renegade converts to Christianity.”

These people were acting like a propaganda machine to raise hatred towards Christians in Turkey, and their actions were coordinated.

But if you look at Ergenekon-friendly newspapers, they are just being investigated because of their moderate interpretation of Islamic rules and their stance against Gülen. That’s really a pity; these media outlets still manage to manipulate public opinion.

Published on Today's Zaman, 06 April 2011, Wednesday