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ISTANBUL: Ergenekon's recent tactics

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  • ISTANBUL: Ergenekon's recent tactics

    Ergenekon's recent tactics

    http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-302387-ergenekons-recent-tactics.html
    27 December 2012, Thursday

    ETYEN MAHÇUPYAN
    e.mahcupyan@todayszaman


    Neo-nationalists (ulusalcılar), who have made it their mission to wage
    a political war against the government, continue to parrot that the
    criminal case against Ergenekon -- a clandestine organization nested
    within the state trying to overthrow or manipulate the democratically
    elected government ` is based on false or fabricated evidence.
    But each new evidential document provides information that proves the
    prosecutor's claims against the defendants. Under the scope of the
    trial concerning an anti-government Internet campaign spearheaded by
    the military, a judge who was given the task of examining the hard
    disks sent from the General Staff as evidence prepared a preliminary
    report last week.

    Apparently, the military continued to search for ways to overthrow the
    government even after 2007, but they also made certain tactical
    changes to their strategy. These changes are justified as follows: For
    the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to be overthrown, it
    must lose its global backing. For this to happen, the cooperation
    between the AKP and the global capital must be disrupted or the global
    capital must lose its power so as not to maintain overall economic
    stability. On the other hand, the conditions for overthrowing the AKP
    through violence or other methods are not ripe. Such an attempt should
    seek cooperation with central powers or the central powers may disrupt
    the country's economic structure overnight. Therefore, the best
    strategy is to wait for the disruption of the AK Party's accord with
    the central powers and the weakening of global capital in Turkey.

    It appears that the military has institutionalized its coup tradition
    by extending it to cover a longer time period, and it has returned to
    more patient and `subtle' methods in the post-2007 era. A perusal of
    Judge Hüsnü Çalmuk's observations in the report reveals that the
    military's coup tactics for the new era follow three main lines.

    The first tactical line suggests that the military should retreat to
    the shadows and remain in disguise contrary to its previous strategy
    of coming to the fore. In this context, the members of the TSK are
    advised to avoid making references to the military being above parties
    and politics and to stress that the military is defending the
    interests not of institutions, but of the state, and to refrain from
    any disrespect for the president and to ensure that they do not give
    the impression of conflict with the ruling party or of intervening in
    politics.

    The second tactical line is about what should be done about political
    parties. As the AKP is not a homogeneous party but binds together
    people from diverse ideological attachments, the members of the TSK
    are encouraged to develop `direct or indirect' relations with the AKP
    members who are close to the military and to manipulate or support
    them using `proper means.' Naturally, they adopt a bolder approach to
    the opposition parties: The new strategic plan aims to ensure that the
    military's views are advocated by the opposition parties, and to this
    end, to plant the people who are close to the military into the
    decision making mechanisms of the main opposition Republican People's
    Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

    The third tactical line is directly about how to manipulate the
    general public. The purpose is to ward off negative comments or
    assessments about the military and to produce false information so as
    to make the secular public more resistant to the government. One of
    the evidential documents covered by the report depicts in detail how
    to conduct gray and black propaganda. According to this document, the
    most effective method is to establish a news agency which will reach
    both the national and international public. It is stressed that
    running this news agency on the Internet would be more economical and
    have advantages in terms of risk analysis. Reading these sentences in
    the light of the previously seized evidence and information, one
    cannot help thinking that OdaTV, against which there is an ongoing
    trial, fits perfectly to this definition.

    As for what such a news agency that operates through the web can do,
    the document gives such examples, such as arranging media appearances
    for certain people who are `deprived of any reactionaryism,' making
    them write books and making academics conduct prejudiced surveys to
    lend support to the manipulated viewpoints. Oddly enough, all of these
    recommendations seem to have been implemented in a number of cases in
    the post-2007 era. The option of having a book penned does not belong
    to `formerly pious people' alone, but can include anyone who serves
    this purpose and as such, one can understand how `researchers' have
    mushroomed and how the marketplace has been flooded with ideologically
    motivated books.

    By the way, we should not forget that the most important element in
    the abovementioned analysis is the `central powers.' The documents
    openly refers to these central powers as the US and EU. This means
    that pro-Ergenekon's black propaganda targets primarily the US and EU.
    The situation is no different today. The same propaganda is in place.

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