Tag: Ahmet Sik

Ergenekon Fethullah Gülen üyeleri tarafından yürütüldü

04.08.2013

Binlerce sayfayı bulan Ergenekon iddianamelerini okuyan ve “Gerçek ile Fantezi Arasında: Türkiye’nin Ergenekon Soruşturması” isimli raporun yazarı Gazeteci Gareth Jenkins, “Ergenekon soruşturması, şu an Başbakan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ile bir iktidar mücadelesine girmiş olan Fethullah Gülen hareketinin üyeleri tarafından yürütüldü” yorumunda bulundu.

BBC Türkçe’den yansıtılan habere göre Jenkins sona yaklaşılan Ergenekon davasına ilişkin soruları yanıtladı. “Ergenekon soruşturması ilk başladığında pek çok kişi soruşturmayı yürütenlerin iddialarını ön kabul yoluyla algılamaya hazırdı. Türkiye komplo teorileri ile dolu ve derin devlet olarak bilinen Gladyo tarzı bir ağ Türkiye’nin modern tarihinin bir gerçeği” diyen Jenkins, insanlar yerleşik fikirlerini Ergenekon soruşturmasına yansıttığını söyledi. Yıllar geçtikçe hem Türkiye içinde hem Türkiye dışında davaya yönelik algının büyük ölçüde değiştiğinin altını çizen Jenkins, şunları kaydetti:

“Şimdilerde davada, en azından derin bir çatlak olduğunu bilmeyen birini bulmanız çok zor. Sanırım pek çok kişi artık davanın siyasi motivasyonla üretilmiş olduğunu anladı.

FETHULLAH GÜLEN ÜYELERİ TARAFINDAN YÜRÜTÜLDÜ

Ergenekon soruşturması, şu an Başbakan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ile bir iktidar mücadelesine girmiş olan Fethullah Gülen hareketinin üyeleri tarafından yürütüldü. Yine de Ergenekon davası, hukukun üstünlüğünün nasıl görmezden gelinebileceğini ve Türkiye basınının baskı, kibir ve bazı mensuplarının ilkesizliği nedeniyle nasıl kontrol altına alınabileceğini göstererek Erdoğan’ın gittikçe otoriterleşen yönetim biçiminin temellerini attı. Eğer insanlar Ergenekon davasının başında, davanın gerçeklerine bakmayı başarsalardı ve hukukun üstünlüğü ve aynı fikirde olmadıkları insanların hakları için ayağa kalksalardı, bugün Ankara’da böylesine otoriter bir rejim ile karşı karşıya olmazdık.

Yüzlerce sanığı ve bu kadar sıra dışı iddia ve suçlamaları içeren her dava, hem davanın taraftarlarını hem de ülkenin hukuk sistemini yargılamakla son bulur. Bu Türkiye ve Ergenekon soruşturmasının taraftarları ve destekçilerinin kötü şekilde başarısızlığa uğradığı bir sınav.

Ergenekon iddianameleri, her siyasi şiddet eyleminden sorumlu olan hiyerarşik, merkezi olarak idare edilen ve Türkiye’nin modern tarihindeki her militan grubu yönetmiş; aynı zamanda nükleer, kimyasal ve biyolojik silahları uluslararası piyasaya satmaya hazırlanan bir örgüt suçlamasına yer veriyor. Tabii ki böyle bir örgüt yok.

Ergenekon iddianameleri çok uzun, muhtemelen kasten böyle. Sağduyusunu yitirmemiş, iddianameleri okuyup böyle bir örgütün gerçekten var olduğuna inanan herkese karşı bunu savunurum.”

“ERGENEKON DAVASININ KURBANI İKİ GRUP VAR”

Derin devlet Türkiye modern tarihinin bir gerçeği olduğunu savunan Jenkins, “Ergenekon soruşturması başladığından beri, davayı destekleyenler, bunun derin devleti hedef aldığı iddia etti. Ancak Ergenekon iddianamelerini okuduğunuzda, niyetin bu olmadığı açık olarak ortaya çıkıyor. Derin devlet özerk ve yarı özerk çete ve grupların dokunulmazlık içinde faaliyet yürütmesiydi. Bu da Ergenekon soruşturması başlayana kadar hemen hemen ortadan kalkmıştı. Ergenekon davasının kurbanı iki grup var. Gruplardan biri soruşturmayı yürütenler tarafından doğrudan hedef alınanlar; özellikle açık şekilde absürt suçlamalar ve üretilmiş ‘delillerle’ suçlanan ve tutuklananlar. Diğer grup ise gerçek derin devletin kurbanlarından oluşuyor. Örneğin 1990’lı yıllarda Güneydoğu’da binlerce kişi ölüm mangaları tarafından öldürüldü. Onlar ve aileleri için adaleti sağlamak üzere hiçbir girişimde bulunulmadı. Ergenekon soruşturmasının en korkunç taraflarından biri de gerçek derin devletin bu kurbanlarının, davayı kendi siyasi amaçları için yürütenler tarafından kullanılmasıdır.

Bu aynı zamanda, sevmedikleri insanları hedef aldığında Ergenekon davasını destekleyen ve arkadaşlarını hedef aldığında eleştiren; fakat gerçek derin devlet tarafından işlenen suçlar yüzünden adalet bekleyen insanlara hiçbir ilgi göstermeyen ‘liberal entelektüellere’ de uzanıyor” dedi.

“AVCI İLE ŞIK’IN AYNI ÖRGÜTE AİT OLABİLECEĞİNİ DÜŞÜNEN HERKESİN BİR DAHA DÜŞÜNMESİ GEREKİR”

Ergenekon davasında yargılananların paylaştıkları tek özelliğin hepsinin “Gülen hareketinin gerçekten veya öyle algılanan karşıtları veya rakipleri olması” olduğunu öne süren Jenkins, “Davayı kimin yürüttüğüne işaret eden başka pek çok kanıt var ama sadece suçlananların isimlerine bakmak da yeterli. Solculara yönelik kötü muameleyle ünlü sağcı eski emniyet müdürü Hanefi Avcı ile sosyalist gazeteci Ahmet Şık’ın aynı örgüte ait olabileceğini düşünen herkesin bir daha düşünmesi gerekir. Ama tabii ki, Avcı ve Şık, Gülen hareketi üyelerinin emniyet ve yargı sistemine nüfuz etmelerini ayrıntılandıran kitaplar yazmışlardı” ifadelerini de kullandı.

Odatv

August 4, 2013
Repression in Turkey: Enemies of the state

Enemies of the state

Four journalists are released from prison. Dozens are less lucky

Mar 17th 2012 | ISTANBUL | from the print edition

Sener is smiling, but unhappy

“HOW can I be happy when so many of my colleagues are not free?” The question was asked by Nedim Sener, an investigative journalist who this week was freed on bail, along with three other journalists, after spending more than a year in an Istanbul prison on thin charges that he was part of a conspiracy to overthrow Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) party.

He is right to ask. At least 100 journalists are behind bars in Turkey, more than in any other country. Most are held on terrorism charges. But under Turkey’s nebulous anti-terror laws, even covering a press conference by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy party could get you locked up. The pro-Kurdish DIHA news agency says 27 of its reporters are in jail. Journalists who criticise Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, face the sack at the hands of timid media bosses.

Mr Sener was arrested last year with Ahmet Sik, a journalist who built his career uncovering human-rights abuses. Mr Sener dug into alleged police complicity in the 2007 murder of Hrant Dink, an Armenian-Turkish newspaper publisher. Both men wrote books that were fiercely critical of Turkey’s most influential Islamic movement, led by Fethullah Gulen, a reclusive imam who lives in America. Many think that under AK rule the “Gulenists” have infiltrated Turkey’s police force and judiciary, and the journalists sought to prove this. “Those who touch [the Gulenists] burn!” Mr Sik cried as he was arrested last year.

Pressure from the European Union and various human-rights groups helped secure this week’s releases. And there are encouraging signs that Mr Erdogan may soon resume the reforms which once endeared him to Turkish liberals and his Western friends. These, Mr Sener noted, ought to include dealing with Turkey’s prisons. Hundreds of minors had to be shipped out of one in the southern province of Adana this month following allegations of physical and sexual abuse.

Life was not that bad for Mr Sener, although he did lose 30kg (66lb) inside. It was harder, he said, on his eight-year-old daughter, who was forced to remove her skirt when visiting him (its studs set off a metal detector). Police scoured her school notebooks for “evidence” against her father. “She kept asking, ‘Am I a terrorist?’,” Mr Sener said. In the eyes of Turkish prosecutors, she may well be.

via Repression in Turkey: Enemies of the state | The Economist.

March 16, 2012
Erdogan vs. Auster: Why Is the Turkish Prime Minister Feuding with a Brooklyn-based Writer?

By Pelin Turgut

An Internet-fueled war of words raged across the Atlantic this week between the unlikeliest of opponents: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an Islamic-leaning politician of fiery rhetoric and oft-bellicose disposition, and the erudite Brooklyn-based American novelist Paul Auster. At issue was the state of press freedom in Turkey, which currently ranks alongside China in the number of journalists it has jailed.

The spat was prompted by Auster’s comments to a Turkish newspaper that he would not visit Turkey, or China, in protest of the jailing of dozens of journalists and intellectuals. “How many are jailed now? Over 100?” said Auster, a well-read author in Turkey where his new book Winter Journal has just been published.

Around 100 members of the Turkish press are currently in jail, according to the Turkish Journalists Union – they include two well-known investigative reporters critical of the government, Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener, whose detention has made them an international cause célèbre. The government insists they are not being prosecuted because of what they wrote, but for engaging in illegal activities.

In Ankara, Erdogan seized on Auster’s words during an address to party members. “Ah, we really depend on you,” he said, sarcastically. “Who cares if you come or if you don’t? Would Turkey lose prestige?”

The Prime Minister went on to accuse Auster of being hypocritical in view of the author’s recent visit to Israel, with whom Ankara has icy relations. “Supposedly Israel is a democratic country, a secular country, a country of limitless freedom of expression, individual freedoms and human rights. What an ignorant man you are… Israel is a real theocracy,” Erdogan said. “Didn’t [Israel] shower Gaza with bombs? Didn’t [Israel] launch phosphorus bombs and use chemical weapons?”

Auster quickly shot back: “Whatever the Prime Minister might think about the State of Israel, the fact is that free speech exists there and no writers or journalists are in jail.”

Most of Turkey’s jailed journalists work for the Kurdish press and were detained as part of a sweeping plan to eradicate a group called KCK, which the government says is an urban offshoot of the Kurdish separatist group PKK. But those arrested for alleged KCK related offenses include people like Busra Ersan, a well-known and respected Istanbul professor, and publisher Ragip Zarakolu, whose work has been commended internationally. Due to the glacial pace of the Turkish court system, it might take months before they appear before a judge. “According to the latest numbers gathered by PEN, there are nearly one hundred writers imprisoned in Turkey, not to speak of independent international publishers such as Ragip Zarakolu, whose case is being closely watched by PEN Centers around the world,” Auster said.

The Auster affair instantly became headline news in Turkey. “One of the last things I could ever have imagined is that Prime Minister Erdogan, who has become an important global political figure, would engage in coffeehouse style polemics with the famous author Paul Auster,” wrote commentator Cengiz Candar in the Radikal newspaper. “Yes, this will make Turkey lose altitude (internationally).”

The charismatic Erdogan, who was re-elected by an overwhelming majority for a third term in June, has become an increasingly high-profile leader in recent years, particularly in the wake of the Arab Spring. Under him, Turkey is now the most popular country among people in 16 countries in the Middle East, according to a new survey by the research group TESEV. More than 60 percent of respondents said they thought Turkey was a positive role model.

Ironically, the main reason cited for Turkey’s appeal was its “democratic regime.” This came above other factors like its booming economy or Muslim identity. Yet it is precisely on that score that Erdogan’s authoritarian bent has drawn increasing criticism at home and from Europe and the US. In 2011, Turkey was the worst violator of press freedoms in Europe, according to the European Court of Human Rights. Erdogan himself brooks little dissent and does not hesitate to sue journalists or cartoonists who are critical of him. So although Paul Auster is the first novelist of international stature to earn his wrath, he might not be the last.

via Erdogan vs. Auster: Why Is the Turkish Prime Minister Feuding with a Brooklyn-based Writer? | Global Spin | TIME.com.

February 5, 2012
Turkey: imprisoned journalists publish own newspaper

(ANSAmed) – ANKARA, JANUARY 10 – Already into its second issue, the newspaper written by journalists awaiting trial in Turkey aims to direct attention on this noteworthy feature of the country’s judicial process.

The 16-page publication bears the title ”Tutuklu Gazete” (”Imprisoned Newspaper”) and, as is being reported on various websites, one hundred thousand copies of it feature as supplements in several Turkish dailies. The editorial team comprises 43 journalists who have been imprisoned, along with two others who have recently been released, and two ”guest” columnists.

”If I am free and you are free, then we are all free: otherwise we are all in prison,” wrote Nedim Sener, an investigative journalist who has gotten up a few noses and winner of an international award, presently in prison on the accusation of having taken part in an attempted coup. ”We are journalists, not terrorists,” runs one of the headlines in the paper, which includes contributions from Mustafa Balbay, a journalist and opposition MP who was denied parliamentary immunity as he is accused of being a fellow plotter with Sener (the plot of the Ergenekon organisation).

According to recent data from a professional association, 97 journalists are currently in prison in Turkey. Apart from four cases, the government denies that they are in prison because of what they wrote, and is promising in any case to change laws that allowing arrests and remand sentences which can last up to ten years in Turkey. Turkey is fourth from bottom in the world’s press-freedom league table drawn up by the World Economic Forum and only in 82nd place for independence of the judiciary. Arrests of journalists are often criticised by European institutions, the OECD, the USA, the country’s own opposition and various associations for the safeguarding of human rights.

(ANSAmed)

January 11, 2012
European Union to pressure Turkey on its judicial system

European Union to pressure Turkey on its judicial system

BRUSSELS

Demonstrators protest the arrest of journalists. Lengthy detention periods are a significant problem despite measures taken to prevent them, a draft EU report says. DAILY NEWS photo, Emrah GÜREL

The European Union has prepared to release a judiciary report on Turkey this week criticizing the justice system, particularly the unreasonable periods of detention.

The EU Council’s report was prepared upon the visit of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg to Turkey in October.

“There are some functional problems that have continued for a long time and have affected the system negatively,” said the report, according to daily Hürriyet. The report also cites the problem of presumption of innocence not being used in court decisions when arresting suspects.

Problems in independence of judges and prosecutors

There are also problems in impartiality and independence of judges and prosecutors, said the report, which also criticized the prolonged periods of detentions and prosecutions. The report urged officials to use “release on bail” as an option instead of detention.

The European Court of Human Rights has made over 2,200 decisions against Turkey between 1995 and 2010.

Almost 700 of these decisions were about violating the right to a fair trial. More than 500 of the cases were about freedom and security of the people. The judicial reform strategy that started in 2009 to adjust the laws within the EU norms should be put into action, the report said.

Lengthy detention periods were still a significant problem despite measures taken to prevent them. The lack of compensation for the duration of detention or lack of access to a mechanism to fasten the prosecution also increases the judiciary problem, the report said.

via POLITICS – European Union to pressure Turkey on its judicial system.

January 10, 2012
Turkey: “Free journalists” challenge courts

The trial of several journalists accused of being involved in an alleged plot to overthrow the Turkish government had degraded the status of press freedom in the country, writes Ece Temelkuran

“We are spending our lifetimes running in between the courtrooms”, reads one of the tweets from outside the court. People are already talking about “the trial of the following day”. They are spending the night in the freezing cold weather of Istanbul and hoping that the court will release the 11 journalists who have been awaiting trial for almost a year. They are exchanging the dates of scheduled court cases against the journalists, students and politicians, complaining about the overlapping court dates.

Today in Turkey, there are more than 100 journalists, over 500 students and more than 3,500 Kurdish and Turkish politicians who have been subjected to political trials and imprisoned for months or even years. Figures from an Associated Press survey show that one third of the world’s terrorists live in Turkey.

Only a few journalists and some citizen reporters are reflecting the objective truth about what is going on in the country, since almost none of the national media dare to speak about these “terrorism cases”. TV networks don’t bother to mention their arrested colleagues. Instead they broadcast documentaries about aviation while the hearings are taking place, or they wait for 11 hours for the Prime Minister’s official statement to mention the 19 Kurdish children that have been killed in the recent bombardment.

It is important that citizens are following up with these cases, as they are the only ones who are supporting the arrested journalists facing trial by covering the news mainly on Twitter.

The case of investigative journalists Ahmet Şık and Nedim Sener, among those accused of being involved in an alleged plot to overthrow the Turkish government, is perhaps the most relevant example. The charges against these two reporters are quite blurry. “Causing political chaos through media” or being a member of a fake terrorist organisation are only two of the charges against them.

Both of them are accused of being members of Ergenekon, an illegal paramilitary organisation aiming to topple the government. Both men have been investigating the organisation for years; the argument in the indictment is that they are using their journalism as a cover for their real “terrorist” identity.

They have spent months in prison only to learn about the accusations and waited more than 11 months to have their first hearings. They are included in the Oda TV case, named after an internet portal deemed a hub for “terrorist activities”, with nine other journalists. Needless to say they were critics of the government.

It might be assumed that such a case would create enormous media attention and wide-ranging support from the colleagues. But no. Since Prime Minister Erdogan personally threatened the journalists who criticise this case, just a handful of reporters showed up in the court. Most probably, colleagues were afraid to end up like I did few days ago: Unemployed.

Or worse: ending up behind bars. As the indictment of the Oda TV case tells us, an email coming from a fake account is enough to link you to a terrorist organisation; an ordinary joke on tapped phone conversations might be considered “evidence” of “terrorist activities”. As Sener, in his defence statement during the hearing, put it: “The prosecutors don’t even bother to collect evidence against the journalists, let alone the ones in their favour”.

The inadequacy and absurdity of the indictment that caused constant laughter in the court was not covered by Turkey’s press. It was on the first page of the New York Times but not the national newspapers. In addition, during last week’s hearings the judge banned mobile phones in the court, although despite the danger of a six-month prison term for acting against the court’s order, a few brave colleagues tweeted from inside the court. They are the only ones who broke the silence.

Şık’s defence statement today was a historical and thorough answer to this age of silence in Turkey. He asked the question which most of the people don’t dare to ask even if they are not behind bars: “Is this a democracy or an empire of fear? I hope the silence of government is out of embarrassment!”

He has every right to ask the question because he has been in prison, in complete isolation for 11 months, for writing a book that that alleged the involvement of Turkish security forces in the 2007 murder of the Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor, Hrant Dink.

Unfortunately, it was not the ones who are supposed to answer Şık question but rather those who were brave enough to show up in court. They were all embarrassed when Sener cried when he said what mattered to him was to be judged by people’s hearts and minds, not by the court.

Our friends and colleagues have not been discharged. One of them, 65-year-old Dogan Yurdakal, was not allowed to see his wife for the last time when she was dying from cancer. When asked in the court about his marital status he said: “I was married but now I am a widow.”

These political arrests and the silence surrounding them has degraded the status of press freedom in Turkey. That is why colleagues are calling me nowadays, after hearing the news of my firing from Haberturk, to tell me that they are going to be unemployed, like me, sooner or later. They ask if there is any problem with the #freejournalists hashtag on Twitter, which we created to spread news about the Oda TV case. Not yet, is my answer. Not yet.

Ece Temelkuran is the author of ”Deep Mountain-Across the Turkish Armenian Divide” and “Book of the Edge”. She has been a journalist since 1993 and has been writing political columns since 2000. Her articles have been published in New Left Review, Le Monde Diplomatique, Global Voices Advocacy and the Guardian.

http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2012/01/turkey-press-freedom-ece-temelkuran/

January 7, 2012