If the ‘system’ was transparent and accountable
According to a pro-government newspaper, the “Fethullah Gülen Community coup plotters” were behind the Uludere massacre, where 34 citizens were bombed to death by fighter jets. The military prosecutor who decided not to prosecute the investigation is now included in the coup attempt investigation. All three commanders who were responsible for the bombing are now under arrest because of the coup attempt.
The newspaper assessed several pieces of data and concluded that Uludere was the business of the Fethullah community. Obviously some of the government members were also thinking likewise, otherwise such a story would never have appeared in that paper.
When the Uludere massacre happened, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) was in power and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was the prime minister. Erdoğan, that day, said the incident would be investigated; so did then Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. But a comprehensive investigation to reveal the truth about Uludere was never carried out.
The investigation was closed on grounds that it was “an inevitable mistake.” Now, they are saying that Uludere was an operation of the “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization” (FETÖ).
I want to ask now: If that investigation was not supported politically as such and covered up, then wouldn’t the Fethullahist organization within the army have been disclosed earlier?
The problem is that we do not have a system where public administration is accountable and transparent. This is the only thing that would prevent similar organizational infiltrations in the future.
Transparency prevents parallel structures
Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said that with the U.K. leaving the EU, Istanbul’s potential to become a world finance center in place of London has increased.
I would not want to demoralize Canikli, but under today’s conditions this seems quite hard.
It was not like Istanbul was right below London for years in the “The Global Financial Centers Index” survey and now when London is out, Istanbul will step in.
The reasons Istanbul fell behind in this survey was that there was no transparency, there was no foreseeable legal order, institutions managing the economy were not independent, there was no objective tax order and corruption could not be prevented.
In a story by CNN International on Sept. 19, 2014, Istanbul was not among the top nine future finance centers. The reasons were the same: Turkey was not transparent, corruption could not be prevented, a foreseeable legal order did not exist and the tax system was not objective, it was arbitrary. If Deputy Prime Minister Canikli is sincere, he should convince his government to solve this issue.
If Turkey were a transparent country with a normal legal order, would the Fethullah gang have been able to organize so well within the state and attempt to stage a coup?
Taking advantage of the opportunity
My last sentence as my first sentence: Nobody can make me believe that journalists Nazlı Ilıcak, Şahin Alpay, Hilmi Yavuz and Bülent Mumay are from the coup plotting Fethullah group.
I don’t personally know all the journalists who have been sought with warrants or arrested. The ones I know are the names above and detaining them with such an “empty” accusation is not acceptable in a country where “the democracy holiday” is being celebrated.
This makes me think that they are apprehending all those journalists that they do not like because of what they write.
Let me openly say that this looks like taking advantage of an opportunity.
Where did detained journalists take part in the coup attempt? Were they in the planning stage or were they executing it?
The Fethullahist gang used major lawsuits in the past as a tool to silence the opposition voices. The same mistake should not be repeated. The legitimacy of the legal fight against the coup plotters should not cast a shadow with such acts.