Erkenegon Gets Worse
The Erkenegon case is running completely out of hand. A few days ago, one of the people who were arrested on the order of the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) leaders died. Kuddusi Okkir was arrested one year ago, and said to be the financial brains behind the so-called Erkenegon operation (people trying to create chaos so that the military would overthrow Turkey’s government).
However, one year after he was first arrested, he was still not accused of anything specific (just like all the other ’suspects’). For the moment, it seems that Okkir’s only ‘crime’ was that he was a passionate opponent of Erdogan and Gül.
As said, he was arrested one year ago, and he seemed to be in reasonable health back then (as I understand it). However, he was diagnosed with cancer in prison and became increasingly ill. At a certain moment, the guards found him lying on the floor; he had passed out. When the situation got so bad that he only had a couple of days, perhaps some weeks before he would die, he was released from prison, where he was not treated as a cancer patient should be treated.
He now, shortly after he was released, died.
Sabriye Okkir, his wife, is planning to take the case to court. She told the newspaper Hürriyet that she has appealed to the Turkish parliament’s Human Rights Commission and will file a case at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for “ill-treatment.”
“His treatment was not started on time and his health condition had worsened in a short period of time due to neglects. We were not informed on the developments,” she added.
Meanwhile, Erdogan et al. continue to lock up political opponents. Yesterday, retired generals Şener Eruygur and Hurşit Tolon were arrested. Before they were arrested they were ‘being watched.’
Speaking in front of an Istanbul court after the arrests, Eruygur’s lawyer Filiz Esen said, “Our commander, who loyally served his country for years, was arrested under trumped-up charges. We accept none of the charges.”
All in all, 58 people have been arrested thus far. No one has heard any charges against himself. Political opponents are locked up, said to be part of some kind of huge conspiracy, but no charges have been filed, no direct accusations have been made. They are arrested, but they are not able to defend themselves.
‘Prosecutors have yet to draw up an indictment to detail the charges and commence a trial. The AKP’s critics have hit out at the prosecution for delaying the indictment and have charged that the government is using the investigation to intimidate opponents.’
Why the delay? Well, the indictment – which is reportedly being written as we speak – is said to be more than 2,500 pages long. Additionally, there are a lot of “technical difficulties” and “the constantly broadening scope of the case” makes it difficult for prosecutors to, you know, actually indict people so that they can defend themselves.
Those who have spent time studying oppressive governments, etc., will probably agree with me that this case is more than suspicious. One wonders why the hell it is that Europe has decided not to say much, and the same can be said for all those Western newspapers that have been defending Erdogan et al. for years. As far as I am concerned there are two options right now:
1. The entire case is made up by the government
2. There’s some truth to it; there are a few people who planned to overthrow the government by creating chaos, but the others – the majority probably – are simply part of a project by the AKP to intimidate the opposition
Maybe the AKP actually wants to provoke a coup. If they continue like this, it is quite possible that Büyükanit and Basbug will do something.
Turkey is sitting on one of the most expensive real estates in the world. Not only geo politically, but also in terms natural resources. So is it any wonder there is so much provocation, agitation, and misinformation coming from the West? Of course it is to their advantage to keep Turkey consistently busy with ethnic, political, socio-economical and religious bickering. Kemalism stands for everything the Western powers want to destroy. If a nation is aware of its history, has self pride and is educated with out being ruled by religion, then that nation has the potential to become something much bigger. This is exactly why AKP is such a great tool! That is why they praise AKP while criticize the secularist group who wants to free itself from foreign interference.
I don’t think the West wants to destroy Turkey, they just want to make money.
AKP doesn’t care about Turkey either. Some AKP supporters privately told me that they don’t care about the existence of Turkey, they wouldn’t mind if Turkey had been annexed by Greece in the 20s. "Then we would be Greeks now and our women would be allowed to wear the headscarf at schools and universities".
His widow claims the authorities purposefully delayed treatment and accuses them of killing him.
As for Kuddusi Okkir, Allah rahmet eylesın (may he rest in peace), or haunt to insanity those who deliberately pushed him into an early grave, whichever he prefers.
A.B.B, I agree with you that it is some what about "Money", but it is also about keeping Turkey down. If a strong Turkey was to emerge, then they would have to deal with a serious regional power and that is just not exceptable for the western world…
nevber,
In your opinion, who exactly would mind Turkey being a serious regional power and why?
Hally,
The Turkish word for God is Tanrı.
A.A.B, I am sure you know the answer to your questions. But since you are asking me, then I will tell you what I think. First of all, USA became the super power after WW2. With the collapse of the former Soviet Union, this fact was even more visible. The world is like a complicated chess board. One must think about, not only, the next move but the next 3 moves in order to survive and win the game. In order the keep the statues quo, USA, needed to do everything in their power to keep certain parts of the world confused and muddled with unimportant issues such as religious, economical, political or ethnic turbulence. This way, countries are not dealing with the real issues at hand but rather dealing with wasteful issues such as women’s hair… To complicate things even further, spreading disinformation we see in the streets women screaming for their “freedom” to cover their heads. A country that has not solved its most basic need such as religious freedom balancing with separation of religion and state is a country dealing with unimportant issues. The Western world has moved on and we are still as a nation worried about a piece of hair that shows…Give me a break! If this is not done purposefully, I don’t know what is??? USA is not the ONLY headache Turkey has. European Union is also very much visible in the game and does not wish a very powerful Turkey. A powerful Turkey would mean many things. First of all there are millions of Turks who live in Europe and have very little power. In Germany, even if you and your child were born there, they still can not obtain German citizenship. If Turks were to be educated and less religious then they would start mobilizing and start changing the constitution, becoming active part of the society and even changing the system…. That is a very scary prospect. I can give you many many examples of why France does not want it or Greece or or or… But I do not have time now and I know, you know the answers to these questions…. Is this clear? Or do you need more spelling out…
For Europe, there is the added bonus of Turkey being a Muslim country…. If we were christians, both you and million of Turks know, we would be part of Europe longgggg ago….
This ‘external powers’ line of thought does two things. 1) It ascribes an unrealistic unity of mind to a whole country, say like the US. 2) It diminishes the internal dynamics of the affected country, say like Turkey; it thus is a diminishing argument.
As for being concerned about the rise of new power (regional or global, or whatever), that’s a natural thing. Noone is expected to be cool about the rise of a new power whose direction is not certain. In that vein, I have always felt that exclusion of Turkey from the EU, while the latter rises as a full-fledged world power, would be very detrimental to this excluded Turkey. So, to me, two acceptable scenarios are: either Turkey is in, or the EU project stalls or disintegrates.
nevber,
As for the headscarf thing, I don’t think the US created it. There really are crazy, religious fanatics in Turkey who think women have to cover their heads else God will punish them.
And what you write about German citizenship is just plain wrong. Hundreds of thousands of Turks have acquired citizenship through naturalisation. And since the year 2000, children born to permanent residents automatically become German citizens on birth.
What is not allowed in most cases though is dual citizenship. So you either have to be a German citizen or a Turkish citizen. If you become German, you must give up your Turkish citizenship. Turkey is cirumventing this rule though by giving "pembe kartlar" to ethnic Turks with German citizenship. These cards, although not formally citizenship, give their holders almost the same rights in Turkey as citizens have.
The influence of Turks in Germany is actually growing, with the young generation getting an education.
I never said US created the religous crazies. But I did say, they are supporting it. Of course in every nation there are groups of people who live on the edges of society. For example, in Germany we have the Neo-Nazis, in US we have the religous right (Evangelicals), in Britain we have the stugs who beat non whites… etc… but they are only a small group who do not treaten the collective society. But in Turkey these crazy groups, or people who live on the edges are supported and funded.! That is the problem. A good example is Fetfullah Gulen…. If we were left alone, we would not be having so much internal turbalance. Didn’t US fund the Talaban? And look at the result!