Who to blame?

The officious journalist was sweating in front of the cameras. He was trying to explain why people should not rush to place the blame for the recent Paris multiple homicide on a 20-year-old, young Turk with ethnic Kurdish background and alleged to have a mental disorder. He was trying to convince the millions (assumed to be) watching the news program that it was wrong to make summary executions and journalists should not try to be prosecutors and judges.

It is indeed good to hear a colleague remembering one fundamental principle of the profession as well as the notion of justice: No one is guilty until sentenced by a court. The same journalist and other members of the “advanced democracy” Islamist-political clan have been acting like prosecutors and judges since 2007 against hundreds of people placed at the Silivri concentration camp; condemning and executing their sentence: coup plotters. Who cares whether they were officially charged or not or whether charges brought against them were supported with sound evidence? Hearsay, circumstantial evidence, eavesdropping and allegations made in testimonies of some terrorists are more than enough to deliver a sentence against some current and former top commanders, professors, journalists and intellectuals.

Still, it was great to hear a fundamental principle remembered by a journalist.

Obviously, the French police and prosecutors investigating the triple homicide in the heart of Paris, at a building very well-protected and in a room that was locked with a digital code must lend an eye to their Turkish colleagues and to some Turkish “journalists” and learn how to examine evidence. If someone entered a building with so many security cameras and managed to go through digitally locked doors without using force and after murdering the three women in cold blood came out as if nothing happened, the French police must have understood immediately that the murders were the work of the Turkish Ergenekon gang. Only that gang could stage such a heinous crime. The PKK, a peace-loving organization that has been operating kindergartens and “love-the-environment” camps here and there obviously should not have been accused in any way.

The Paris murders were of course the product of a mentality that has been alarmed by the prospect of achieving peace through dialogue and compromise. With that in mind, is it possible to rule out the probability that the triple homicide might have been carried out by elements of the Turkish deep state? Why not? There is no limit to assumptions, even though they might be absurd. But, why is it not possible to think of the PKK’s responsibility or the involvement of some intelligence services of our “allies”? After all, could the PKK survive three decades if it was not assisted somehow by our very dear neighbors and some of our allies?

It is indeed difficult to place the blame for the Paris killings on anyone, even if the 20-year-old Ömer captured by the French as the “prime suspect” confesses to the crime. Yes, he might have pulled the trigger, but this is a far bigger issue and those involved this way or the other in these murders must be brought to light.

So far despite the killings, despite the burning of Turkish flags and hurling of separatist banners at the Diyarbakır funeral held for the three female victims of the homicide, there appears a determination on both sides to continue the search for peace through dialogue and compromise. Even the prime minister’s very spicy and arrogant rhetoric could not devastate the national public support for the current drive. This is what ought to be important for now.