Mehmet Ali Birand - English
Mehmet Ali Birand - English
Mehmet Ali Birand - EnglishYazarın Tüm Yazıları

Turkey believes in Ergenekon

The daily Milliyet has done a great thing. It asked the company A&G, headed by Adil Gür, to conduct a survey regarding Ergenekon. It was the perfect timing and subject to test the waters. I was interested in answers to two questions. One question being how much do you believe in Ergenekon. Take a look at how interesting the results are.

Haberin Devamı

Do you believe in the existence of Ergenekon



Yes, I do 61.7 %

No, I don’t 20.3  %

No response / no opinion 18.0  %

Total 100

The answers reflect a basic belief in Turkish society. According to the above, even if it is not exactly known what and how it works, call it "Deep State" or "Ergenekon," there is a formation or presence. Sometimes it is in the name of patriotism, sometimes for the love of flags, sometimes there are people doing illegal deeds in accordance with reasons valid in particular times. Sometimes there are people present supported or passed over by the state. The society believes that Ergenekon is not a fictitious or fake formation. They don’t believe that it is something brought forward only to serve the AKP’s political purposes. What’s more interesting is that answers to the question "What is Ergenekon" separated by education level differ not much from the above. Elementary, junior high, high school and college graduates believe in the existence of Ergenekon.

But there is also another side to the coin.

To the question "Which of these opinions do you support?" a portion of 41 percent believes that in this event some people are supposed to be intimidated and that this is a political maneuver by the AKP.

Which of these opinions do you support?

Haberin Devamı

Everything within the case conforms to the practice of law 32.8 %

There is a gang up in the state but they are suspects in this case so to be intimidated 26.9 %

This case is entirely a political maneuver by the AKP 14.5 % 

No response / no opinion  25.8 %

TOTAL100

Details of surveys may lead you to wrong conclusions. But it is enough to just look at the fundamentals of the results found by Adil Gür, a trusted person who knows what he is doing. Since this survey reflects my opinion I wanted to take it up in my article and share it with those of you who have not read it.

Babacan’s message

Slowly we started believing that Turkey is playing the role of defending Hamas. The prime minister has started showing himself as a model, drawing comparisons between elections that brought the AKP to power and Hamas coming to power. Turkey finally has sent a balanced "fine tuning" message. Foreign Minister Babacan’s words to Fikret Bila and Murat Yetkin are very important: "Hamas needs to make a decision as to whether it wants to be an armed organization or a political movement. Our advice is to take part in a political movement."

Haberin Devamı

The other most important element in Babacan’s declaration is the following sentence stating that nobody will profit from the Gaza conflict: "Everybody lost in Israel’s attack on Gaza. Israel has not obtained anything concrete. On the contrary we are facing a picture in which everybody lost. Israel’s image has been negatively affected. Hostility toward Israel has increased on Arab streets. In Turkey, one of the countries popular among Israeli tourists, reactions have grown. The Arab world is split in two. The same is true for Hamas. In a region the claimed ’under control’ 4,000 buildings are destroyed, 20,000 buildings are damaged, 50,000 people are homeless, 37 schools have been targeted, 1,300 dead and 500,000 are wounded."Babacan is trying to rebuild politics destroyed by the prime minister. I wish there had been no need for it.

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