“No Democracy Will Come Out Of An Anti-Democratic Investigation”

The head of Human Rights Foundation of Turkey evaluates the recent Ergenekon investigation and concludes that there is no reason to be overly optimistic and claim that this operation will result in Turkey’s democratization.

Erhan Üstündağ

“No Democracy Will Come Out Of An Anti-Democratic Investigation”

Yavuz Önen, head of Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV), says that he does not agree with those who say “There will not be another coup in this country.”

According to Önen, this investigation will neither result in Turkey’s democratization nor decrease military’s role in politics.

The authorities have so far detained more than hundred people, including retired generals, journalists and academicians.

Although nobody knows yet the accusations facing these people, according to the news in the papers, they were planning to overthrow the government by organizing a coup.

“What we have is a new form of political struggle today. Not much has changed as far as the essence of the matter is concerned.”

“No democracy will emerge from AKP”

Önen means human rights and democracy when he uses the expression the essence of the matter.

He argues that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) is a conservative movement, it does not set out from the ideas of democracy and human rights and therefore the Ergenekon investigation will not result in changes in these areas.

In order to support his argument, he presents examples to show how AKP’s implementations affected our daily lives during its rule: still existing the ten percent election threshold, police violence at May Day, the restrictions on the freedom of expression, continuance of torture and discrimination against women…

To those who say “there cannot be a coup”

The detainment of the two retired generals, Hurşit Tolon and Şener Eruygur, in the last operation led to the thinking that this time this operation was not superficial.

For example, “Radikal”s chief editor İstmet Berkan said in his column on July 3 that “a quiet revolution was taking place.”

He further added, “A coup attempt is no more a crime that comes with the guarantee that those who commit it will be neither investigated nor punished. Whatever the result of the Ergenekon investigation will be, just the investigation alone has increased the standards of democracy. ”

“Ergenekon is full of procedural violations”

When Önen objects the overly optimistic atmosphere that has surrounded the operation, he points out to the unacceptable illegal procedures in and the politicization of the investigation.

“The judiciary and the executive branches are working together. The Prime Minister presents himself as if he is managing the operation. The indictment is still not published, not much attention is paid to keeping the investigation secret, the newspapers friendly to the ruling party are able to publish all the details of the process…”

According to him, it is not possible to talk about a democratization process under these conditions; on the contrary, the Ergenekon Investigation is full of the rights violations usual in Turkey. (EÜ/EZÖ/TB)