Ergenekon Report

A detailed critical analysis on Gareth Jenkins’ Ergenekon report… Yıldıray Oğur, columnist at Taraf daily, contextualizes the report and points its inconsistencies and material errors.

Only one fourth of the report relates to the indictments

“There is concern that the case may turn into a big step taken towards an authoritarian single party administration, not a big step in the direction of institution of pluralist democracy in Turkey as claimed.” The introductory part of the Report by British Journalist Gareth Jenkins, who has become the last hope of the opponents of Ergenekon Case, titled: “Between Fact and Fantasy: Turkey’s Ergenekon Investigation, concludes with a quite familiar allegation, which has become a motto of a segment in the political debate in Turkey.

Contrary to what is thought, only 22 pages of the 83 page report relate to the initial two indictments for Ergenekon, one of which is 2455 pages and the other, 1909 pages. Still, the report appears to provide a solution to the need for “reading” by the Turkish opinion leaders and journalists, which put out substantial resistance as to the issue of not reading the Ergenekon indictments.

The global public opinion, which is unable to have first hand information on the issue of Ergenekon Case having its entire proceedings in Turkish, is the basic target of the report, which would serve as “Ergenekon for Beginners” for an ordinary Turkish reader.  It has the qualification as the first source containing initial assessment for the world not knowing Turkish about the issue of Ergenekon. And it is highly unfortunate for the world to learn about Ergenekon through this report in the beginning.

Myth of objectivity

Certainly, the fact that the report has been penned by a British journalist, who is thought to be ‘objective’ on Ergenekon Case, which has divided Turkey into supporters and opponents in Turkey, underlies the substantial interest enjoyed by the report both locally and internationally. 

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