Sakık has confused people big time

Şemdin Sakık’s surprise disclosure as the “secret witness” in the Ergenekon case and his statements that followed were enough to stir the surrounding environment. There are two different views on the situation:

- One cannot trust the testimony of a person who was once number two in command in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and have him as a witness. Moreover, a significant part of what he has said was not what he witnessed himself but what he heard from others or interpreted himself. This is an insult to the military members who are being tried. This witness has also weakened the Ergenekon case.

- Sakık’s testimony is important because the information he provided as a former top leader of a terror organization cannot be obtained from anywhere else. Should Sakık be trusted or should he be ignored altogether?

Before anything else, if I consider his attitude toward our “memorandum” case, then I should say Şemdin Sakık is a truthful person because he has stood against the military’s defamation campaign about a group of people among which I was also involved. If he had wanted, he could have made a deal with the General Staff and kept silent in exchange for better prison conditions.

He did not do this and gave a statement. He disclosed the lie of the General Staff. When viewed from that angle, he gives me the impression of an honest man.

However, after the letter that was claimed to be written by him to daily Akit last August and after listening to what he said at Silivri the other day, I have concluded that resorting to his testimony was extremely wrong.

I had never taken the letter seriously, but now, when considering his general attitude, the strangeness of the situation becomes apparent.

In the letter, it was explained that the aim of the interviews of Hasan Cemal, Cengiz Çandar, Yasemin Çongar and Ahmet and Mehmet Altan with Abdullah Öcalan was not only journalistic but also to use the power of the organization.

How strange! As a matter of fact, neither Yasemin nor the brothers Ahmet and Mehmet Altan had met Öcalan. To make an accusation about Hasan and Cengiz is an open deception. Let alone these two, for all the others, there cannot be a more stupid claim than saying that they want to use the military power of the PKK.

I could not find anything concrete in Sakık’s Silivri testimony. It consisted of empty data based on interpretation and rumor. They are words that should not even have a place in a serious indictment. It is funny to even think that the judges would rule based on such evidence.

Sakık’s witness testimony will not totally weaken the Ergenekon case but further force the already irregular structure of the case. People will be more confused. Conspiracy theories will increase.

Is the presidential motion serious?

We have been debating this for a long time. There were rows going on over it.

All of a sudden we see that the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) presidential system motion, as if it was no significant matter, has been submitted to the parliamentary Constitution Conciliation Commission. Think about it; it is a motion of almost revolutionary importance. What would be expected? The prime minister would come forward and introduce the change with a press conference. He would explain the content and try to convince the public, right?

Probably Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has decided not to make a system change in the Constitution and maybe is comfortable with ascending to the presidential mansion with a few simple changes.