"Eurasians" have let down part of the Turkish elite

On trial

Well-known publicist Zihni Chakir received a year and a half in prison yesterday. He wrote a book about the underground Turkish organization Ergenekon , which unites retired and active military personnel. In the book “The Collapse of Ergenekon,” he provided confidential information about the trial of the conspirators now accused of plotting a coup, and also made “insulting remarks” about the armed forces. Some members of this organization also face imprisonment.

Just yesterday, the court in this case began cross-examining the defendants held in the maximum security prison in the Turkish city of Silivri, 70 km from Istanbul. The arrests began in the summer of 2007 after weapons were discovered in one of the safe houses. By the start of the trial on October 20, 86 politicians, public figures, military officers, journalists, lawyers and university professors were in the dock.

Among them are the leader of the left-wing Workers' Party of Turkey Dogu Perincek, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Cumhuriyet, which defends the secular foundations of the state, Ilhan Selcuk, the former rector of Istanbul University Kemal Alemdaroglu, and lawyer Kemal Kerinciz. The military is represented by retired generals Hurşit Tolon, Şener Eruygur and Veli Kücük. They are all people of different ideologies, so it is not surprising that in recent days there have been demonstrations in Turkey, the participants of which - some holding portraits of the founder of secular Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, others with red flags - called the Ergenekon case fabricated.

The day before yesterday the court completed the announcement of the indictment of almost 2.5 thousand pages. The defendants in the case have been charged under 11 articles of the criminal code, providing for punishment from six months in prison to life imprisonment. The list of charges is long: “creating a terrorist organization,” “hatching plans to overthrow the government,” “inciting the people to revolt.” Some defendants were charged with possession and use of weapons, armed attacks on government institutions, and inciting ethnic hatred. We are even talking about murders (of one of the judges in 2006 and of journalist of Armenian nationality Dink Grant in 2007). The organization is credited with preparing an assassination attempt on writer and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, who advocates recognition of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

The position of the Prosecutor General's Office is that the defendants intended to create chaos in the country in order to overthrow the cabinet created by the ruling Justice and Development Party, which has Islamic roots, whose leaders are Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul. Retired General Eruygur openly called for Turkey to leave NATO, followed by entry into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and a military alliance with Russia and Iran. It is also mentioned in the indictment that documents were found in the possession of ex-rector Alemdaroğlu, which allegedly speak of communication between the conspirators and Russian intelligence services through the mediation of the leader of the International Eurasian Movement, Alexander Dugin. Since 2003, he has visited Turkey more than once and written articles on the feasibility of the “Moscow-Ankara axis.”

In this regard, the Vremya Novostey newspaper turned to Alexander Dugin for comment, explaining that “the people who are now on trial are our friends and associates, to whom we provided intellectual, organizational and informational assistance - but no other.” Dugin clarified that he “had close ties with the military leadership of Turkey, political figures such as the former rector of Istanbul University, the owner of Cumhuriyet and the leader of the Workers' Party of Turkey.” Our interlocutor called the defendants “like-minded Eurasians who share the ideas of a multipolar world, an alliance with Russia, and opposition to the American Greater Middle East initiative, but who do so not because of the successful work of our intelligence services, but because of their own objective analysis.”

Alexander Dugin believes that the most scandalous case in Turkey began because of “a collision between two parts of the Turkish elite - the military leadership and moderate Islamists, between whom there was a conflict over the fundamental issues of Turkey’s membership in NATO and the preservation of the secular nature of the state.” The military “advocates for secular nationalism, withdrawal from NATO and a military alliance with Russia, China and Iran, realizing that the NATO “roof” is no longer consistent with national security interests.” The ruling party stands “for partnership with the West, but also for taking into account the Islamic factor within the country”: “In fact, there is no gap between them: some are supporters of radical Eurasianism, others are moderate, and the Americans are causing a split in Turkish society.”

Alexander SAMOKHOTKIN