The Prime Minister's visit to Saygun

Prime Minister Erdoğan's visit to the hospital to see retired four-star general Ergin Saygun, who had open-heart surgery and was sentenced to 18 years in the Sledgehammer case, naturally gave rise to debate. It is quite clear that this visit and the image given during it are "unexpected" for those who have followed the debates and the cases from the beginning. But both this visit and the image given must be evaluated as events that underline the Prime Minister's distinctive style in politics.

First of all, let us state that describing these visits as a self-criticism or a step back by the Prime Minister in the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer cases so far is an overly hasty approach arising from overlooking this style of the Prime Minister. The Ergenekon and Sledgehammer cases are vital cases for settling accounts with the dark order of tutelage established in Turkey since May 27, and for the democratization of the country and the consolidation of the political sphere.

It is also not possible to explain these cases by the determined, law-abiding will of the prosecutors of the Republic of Turkey or the specially authorized Republic prosecutors. Frankly, without an extraordinary political will behind these cases, not even two steps could have been walked in them. Thus, the tutelage of those who abused their authority and established an order of tutelage over the political sphere with no legal legitimacy could not have been rolled back to the present point.

As progress was made in the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer cases, it emerged that the number of people implicated in these events was frighteningly large and, to the same degree, stationed in different layers of society.

Unfortunately, it was assumed that settling accounts with coups, caught as if red-handed, and with the crimes committed while preparing a coup atmosphere, could very easily secure the condition of a social consensus. Yet the bitter reality emerged that there is no consensus in society, starting with the main opposition party, on unconditional democracy and opposition to coups.

As a CHP deputy confessed recently, since "the only option for the CHP to come to power is a military coup anyway," it never was willing or helpful in the complete elimination of this option, that is, in strengthening the political level. That is why the CHP openly displayed unconditional solidarity with Silivri from the day the cases began, even when there was no problem at all concerning the case.

This solidarity expressed, in the full sense of the word, a pathological condition. Yet it was necessary to completely put out of action coups, tutelage, and the shadow of anti-political elements over politics, and the Ergenekon-Sledgehammer cases played a very important role in this process. But however clear a reality the necessity of these cases was, the legal errors made during the trial processes created the risk of casting a shadow over the process. The aim was never, could not be, to take revenge, but if there was a crime, it could not be left unpunished either. The greatest error made in the trial process was the excessive and unnecessary use of the measure of pretrial detention. Even those who were in no position to flee were detained as a precaution.

Truthfully, the Prime Minister's objection to this situation is not a story of a few days voiced on a TV program a few days ago or expressed with the visit to Saygun. He expressed it even as İlker Başbuğ was being arrested, and even had provisions added to the 3rd Judicial Package to prevent unnecessary detentions in order to correct this absurdity. But even though the 3rd Judicial Package was passed, the targeted improvement ran into the resistance of the prosecutors and judges handling the relevant cases.

Yet, as we have said many times before, the AK Parti, as one of the two elements it takes its name from, is a party that claims "justice" as much as, even before, development. Justice is a value that, above all, excludes revenge. Moreover, managing one's anger at a people, a group, a party in such a way that it does not lead one to injustice against them is among the most important mottos of this understanding of justice.

That is one side of the matter. The second side is knowing that a case of revenge pursued until the end of time will lead Turkey to no level ground. Much has changed today even for the tutelage-minded who until yesterday never missed a chance for a coup, and whose coup attempts emerged even while they were being tried. If even a CHP deputy gives his own voters the message "give up your hopes for a coup; there is no way to come to power other than politics and the ballot box anymore," Turkey has reached a different place.

On this level ground, one needs to get used to the gestures, embracing all segments of society, of the Prime Minister, who has been able to achieve this normalization. This visit has found its meaning owing to the special situation that arose around Saygun's illness and detention during the process. In our country, where there is no longer a possibility of a coup, it is possible to take embracing steps for a social restoration. The aim is not revenge but justice. This says neither that those who made or attempted the coups are innocent, nor that they should go unpunished. But it reminds us that they, like everyone else, deserve a fair trial.

There are those who, looking at behavior of this kind, not only interpret it as "the Prime Minister understood his mistake and is apologizing," but also display the cunning to turn it into an opportunity to exonerate nearly all the Sledgehammer and Ergenekon attempts. And they are not content with that; do they not also try to establish their own eternal rightness with "where was his mind until now?"

What can we say? Still, bless them, they make us say "la hawla": La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah.