Tremors of Turkey’s scandal will be felt in Cyprus
By Simon Bahceli
13 July 08
Cyprus Mail
TOMORROW’S announcement on how Turkish state prosecutors plan to
proceed with indictments against a clandestine group that allegedly
sought to overthrow Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP)
government will have major implications for Cyprus.
Not only did the group ` known in the media as Ergenekon ` allegedly
plan to topple the government, it also plotted to intervene in Cyprus
to prevent the possible implementation of the UN’s Annan plan for the
reunification of the island.
Investigations into the ultra-nationalist Ergenekon group have been
ongoing since police raided a house in Istanbul in June last year and
found a collection of arms and explosives, along with computer
documents outlining plans to overthrow the government. Since then, tens
of people have been arrested, including retired military generals,
journalists, university lecturers, businessmen and economists.
Forty-eight of them are currently being held in jail, and face possible
charges of plotting bomb attacks, assassinations and clandestine media
campaigns aimed at triggering a military coup. Their alleged plans
include a plot to kill Nobel Prize winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk
and a bomb attack in Istanbul’s Taksim Square. It has also been
suggested that the group might be linked to the murder of Armenian
jour
nalist Hrant Dink in 2007.
But what makes the ongoing Ergenekon saga interesting for Cypriots is
the allegation that the group was plotting to `intervene’ to prevent
the UN’s Annan plan going to referendum in the north of the island by
sparking a military takeover. And what makes the story yet more
significant for Cypriots is the allegation, made by a number of
journalists in Turkey, that former Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash
was to be the one who would give instructions on when and how the
takeover was to be carried out. These allegations are based on extracts
from the diary of retired Navy General Ozden Ornek, which apparently
stated that he and two other retired generals had received `secret
messages’ from Denktash in February 2004, and that the `theory and
practice’ of what the generals were to carry out was to be `as directed
by Denktash’.
Denktash has not responded to these allegations, despite the banner
headline of one Turkish Cypriot newspaper on June 5 gleefully implying
that Denktash could himself face arrest in the near future. The former
leader also refused an interview with this paper, and has limited his
public comments on the subject to saying that he is `saddened’ by the
arrests of those `who would give their all for their country’.
As a result, debate – albeit hushed – continues in the north over
Den
ktash’s possible links with the currently imprisoned alleged
plotters. Head of the Cyprus Policy Centre at Famagusta’s Eastern
Mediterranean (EMU) Dr Ahmet Sozen says that although Denktash’s links
with the nationalist movement in Turkey are `known to be close’ he
believes Denktash to be `intelligent enough not to associate himself
with people engaged in illegal activities’.
Similarly, Turkish Cypriot journalist Basaran Duzgun wrote on July 5
that he did not believe Denktash would face arrest if he travelled to
Turkey and went further by saying that the fact the Turkish Cypriots
got through the referendum without untoward incident was partly down to
Denktash’s handling of it. `Denktash’s referendum record is clean,’
Basaran insists, although what he says could be perceived as implying
that Denktash simply did not think it necessary to instigate a coup.
Indeed, by the last round of negotiations on the Annan plan in February
2004, it had become fairy certain the Greek Cypriots were going to
reject the plan.
But not everyone agrees that the former hands are entirely clean. One
Turkish Cypriot political analyst who asked not to be named said, `I
don’t have any doubts of his [Denktash’s] involvement. Most of the
people who have been arrested are his friends.’ He went to say that
Denktash had an `ideological identification’ with the Er
genekon group
and believed, like the group, in pan Turkism, a romantic notion whereby
all Turkish-speaking and ethnically Turkish peoples unite to form a
greater Turkish nation. The analyst also believes that Denktash, who he
says sought the toppling of the Turkish government because of its
stance on the Cyrus problem, could face arrest in Turkey `if the
government wishes to do so’.
`It is after all a crime to encourage a coup against a democratically
elected government,’ the analyst concluded.
Another analyst, who also preferred not to be named, said Denktash’s
involvement in the Ergenekon group `almost goes without saying’, but
added that arrest was unlikely because he was `simply too popular in
Turkey’, and that this might provide public sympathy for the group.
Whether Denktash faces arrest, or whether he will be called to give
evidence in court, remains to be seen. What is clear is that the
Ergenekon scandal will rock Turkey to its foundations, and that major
tremors will be felt across Cyprus.