A 16-year process explaining it all
It was year 2000 and a coalition government was ruling made up of three parties, DSP-ANAP and MHP. The prime minister was late Bülent Ecevit and the Deputy Prime Minister was Devlet Bahçeli.
That year, Ankara State Security Court opened a case against Fethullah Gülen. He was charged with “toppling the Republic of Turkey.”
Some five years passed and the year became 2005. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) was ruling. The court acquitted Fethullah Gülen.
When the year was 2008, The Supreme Court of Appeals (Yargıtay) ratified the acquittal, note this, unanimously. It openly said “Fethullah Gülen is innocent.”
The same year, the Ergenekon cases, the ones agreed upon as the biggest conspiracy of the history of the republic, began. Behind these cases were the policemen, prosecutors and judges who have faith in the Fethullah Gülen community. It was apparent from that day that their aim was to have a command of the state and topple also the AKP.
However, the entire pro-government media, with its headlines and columnists was behind those Fethullahist prosecutors, police chiefs and judges.
Daily Hürriyet, on the other hand, started objecting to those injustices from the first day. The paper demonstrates to the public with documents and evidences that these were conspiracies; they were a law scandal.
The year was 2012. Prime Minister then Recep Tayyip Erdoğan participated at the closing ceremony of Turkish Olympiad at Galatasaray’s Türk Telekom Arena Stadium. There, in front of thousands of people, he made a call to Fethullah Gülen: “Come back now, back to your country. Let this separation end…”
This is normal because top courts of this country had declared him innocent…
The same year, in 2012, the Doğan Group, which daily Hürriyet belongs, had a deal with a law company concerning the ongoing cases. This law firm and its lawyers had no criminal complaint against them or any implication of that… There was no situation that prevented it from carrying out legal work.
When the year was 2016, on the evening of July 15, members of the military who are close to Fethullah Gülen who was acquitted in the year 2008, launched a disgusting coup d’état attempt to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the elected government. Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım announced that it was an insurrection. The public learned this through CNN Türk and Hürriyet website, both of which belong to the Doğan Group.
President Erdoğan appeared at the CNN Türk screen and showed that he was alive and asked people to take to the streets and squares. The putchists raided daily Hürriyet and CNN Türk buildings; they took the staff hostage.
That night, a democracy front was formed simultaneously; a national struggle was staged. With the people taking the streets, with CNN Türk and Hürriyet, an objection to the coup transformed into a heroic democratic resistance… And the coup attempt was prevented.
The year was 2016, and the month was December. First, Doğan Holding’s Ankara representative was arrested. And, the other day, on Jan 5, 2017, Doğan Holding’s former CEO and Chief Legal Expert was detained. The claim is that they have made a deal with a law firm that did not have even the implication of a crime but which is now accused of pro-FETÖ. Moreover, with the words of the confessor, “while no positive outcome has been reached in those cases the law firm took…”
What do you think this is?
Isn’t this the “diluting” of the FETÖ case with the same methods applied in the Ergenekon conspiracy? Isn’t this casting a shadow over these cases in advance?
It is playing into the hands of the international prejudice front forming against Turkey, isn’t it?
But the most important one, in those days when we are talking about a liberation war in anti-terror, when we talk about unity and togetherness, isn’t this an assassination against that enormous spiritual and soul unity that formed on the night of the July 15?
Guys, we are journalists. We have no other way than being loyal to the July 15 spirit.
At a time when praise choruses were the loudest for Fethullah Gülen, we were acting with this sentiment while we were standing beside the victims of the Silivri cruelty.
Despite all, we continue to stay beside our state against terror, against attacks against our country, against the FETÖ-PKK and ISIL terror aiming at our democracy.
Well then, tell me…
At such a time of our country, at such a day when threats against all of us have peaked, isn’t it apparent that this practice that has the real aim of “diluting” the FETÖ case will only be for the good of the FETÖ?
