Credible persons and Ergenekon

Nobody yet knows what has been alleged against whom in the latest wave of arrests in Ergenekon, but there is already something we are being made to memorize: that many of those arrested are "highly respectable persons" of society.

The assumption that being among the respectable persons of society requires a different standard to be applied regarding crime is a rumor we have grown used to hearing frequently, especially throughout the Ergenekon case. One of those "present rumors" of the kind said to have "not existed before, but just come up". That the respectable persons of society should be treated differently before the law is something that could not even be thought of being uttered in a state governed by the rule of law.

Yet judging by the reaction CHP leader Deniz Baykal gave at the end of the first day of the arrests, defiantly, in front of the cameras with his own staff behind him, there is, in any case, that is, whatever they may have done, a class of "respectable persons" who must be treated differently. In Baykal's mind there is clearly this notion of "untouchable respectable persons". According to this notion, these "respectable persons", far from deserving such treatment, would never be involved in anything that could be characterized as a crime in the first place.

Underneath this lies a kind of idea of "eternal innocence", the idea that some people are exempt from crime, which is bad enough, but what is worse is this: once the respectable personalities in question are deemed free of crime, the definition of the acts counted as crimes for them can be redone, even if what they did was a crime.

It becomes very clear that Baykal, whose only discourse and only promise in politics for years has been "lifting the immunities of members of parliament", in fact has in his mind, within the scope of the Ergenekon investigation, a far more comprehensive list of untouchable personalities. This crowded list of "untouchables", who must be considered exempt from every kind of investigation and prosecution, is moreover quite long, and is of a kind that would not be affected at all by the lifting of members of parliament's immunities.

It is not very meaningful even to answer the reaction to putting criminals and respectable people together in logical terms. But still, let us once more draw the limits of logic in this matter. One of this country's most afflicted chronic problems for years has been unsolved murders, coups, and the creation of chaotic environments likewise recorded as the work of unknown perpetrators. Those who from the very beginning belittled the arsenal seized in Ümraniye or the three or five weapons found on those arrested in Ergenekon, asking "will a coup be made with these?", perhaps will not be satisfied even by the weapons recovered in the excavations that, starting from Gölbaşı for two days now, will evidently spread further.

If one dwells on what these weapons can and cannot do as physical force, it can easily be said that they would not suffice for an armed force that would seize all of Turkey. But this is, to begin with, a meaningless defense that could be put to use immediately for all terrorist organizations, and also a defense that amounts to playing the complete fool in the face of the Ergenekon organization's way of working.

It must not be forgotten that the Council of State attack attributed to Ergenekon is in itself a major affair. As many have stressed before, the investigation of this incident alone could sufficiently reveal the existence of this organization and its terrible intent and style. The Council of State attack was an operation in which only one person was used as a gunman and only one Glock pistol was used. But the "highly respectable persons" mobilized by this act, thanks precisely to this simple movement of this gunman, gathered at the indicated place and displayed, at the indicated time, the indicated reactions in great harmony.

Although the gunman's act was in fact very clear in its timing and intent, those so-called "respectable persons" who gathered in those squares ostensibly to put up a "reaction to the murder" should have been tried, if not for cooperating with the gunman, then at least for negligence or foolishness. They should have been tried for having fallen so easily for the game of a simple gunman. Despite being so heedless, they should have been tried for having reached the highest points of the state and occupied and diminished the state's respected position, for failing to do justice to the state's reason and dignity.

Moreover, with the trigger this gunman pulled, those "respectable persons" caused one part of the country to turn on another part with feelings of rancor and hatred, and thus effectively brought about its division. The Republic rallies organized afterward took place in great harmony precisely with that pulled trigger, with the bombs thrown at the Republic.

Would it have been possible for all these operations to take place without the contribution and cooperation of those respectable personalities? Without respectable personalities, could a criminal organization have lasted so long and branched out so widely?