"Turkey’s Ergenekon investigation: A political witch-hunt
By Burhan Gurdogan
Turkey is entering a new period with the Ergenekon investigations, which officially began in June 2007. According to some, Ergenekon is a democratization process, while others view it as revenge in response to the fall of the Welfare Party (RP) in February 1997. However, the fact is that Turkey has never faced a judiciary process in which political figures have been so involved. Initially, the public was very supportive and the general consensus was that Turkey had begun a cleansing process; yet, after each arrest and raid operation, the public’s opinion gradually shifted into the idea that the investigation is the government’s supression mechanism against its opposition. Also a precursor to the transition of public opinion, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared himself the metaphorical prosecutor of the investigation. Shortly thereafter, the leader of the main opposition party, Deniz Baykal, announced that, “if the Prime Minister is the prosecutor, then I am a lawyer in this investigation.” These statements led to the polarization of public opinion."
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