Ahmet Şık’s historic defence: Gulenist lackeys and a junta regime that would court the envy of coupists...

At today’s hearing in the thirteen-defendant Odatv trial being heard at Istanbul Serious Crime Court No 18, all defendants and lawyers had their final word on the prosecutor’s written opinion in which he called for the defendants’ acquittal. Following these final words, the court adjourned the hearing until 12 April due to a change of bench and the extensiveness of the file.

The defendants in the Odatv trial, which had its origins in raids on 14 February 2011, are Prof. Dr. Yalçın Küçük, Soner Yalçın, Doğan Yurdakul, Barış Pehlivan, Barış Terkoğlu, Müyesser Yıldız, Mümtaz İdil, Nedim Şener, Ahmet Şık, Hanefi Avcı, Sait Çakır, Coşkun Musluk and İklim Bayraktar. The trial started with fourteen defendants but Kaşif Kozinoğlu passed away in prison. The defendants Müyesser Yıldız and Mümtaz İdil did not attend today’s hearing.

The full text of the defence presented at the hearing by our reporter Ahmet Şık, who was brought to the Istanbul Judicial Complex in Çağlayan from Silivri Prison where he is being held on remand, is as follows:

‘Turkey is a country of anomalies and various absurdities have been experienced in every period, but there has never been another period in which every single universal democratic norm has been voided and has been redefined such that their meaning is turned fully inside out to accord with the interests of the ill designs of an organisation that has taken charge of the country.

Indeed, George Orwell, whose work ‘1984’ is frequently cited as seemingly describing today’s Turkey, would be perfectly justified if he turned over in his grave. Let me list the things that come straight to mind for those who find this to be exaggerated. 

THE ENTIRE COUNTRY TURNED INTO A GRAVEYARD

I will begin with the nearest example. The attempt is being made to fob off as democracy a single-man dictatorship in which further layers of oppression and authoritarianism have been added and which would court the envy of the junta regimes of the past and present. We are confronted by a referendum, touted as being the “will of the people,” that will be conducted under unequal conditions in which the bulk of the media has been taken over and almost full control has been taken over what remains, supporters of ‘No’ are branded as “terrorists” and nobody has any doubt that fraud will be conducted. Following the 7 June 2015 general election that produced a result which threatened their existence and that of the oligarchic order they represent, they decided without a moment’s hesitation that there had been an incorrect manifestation of will and reimmersed the country into a bloodbath. With the ending of the “peace process,” about which they had asserted, “They would drink it even if it were hemlock,” the entire country turned into a graveyard.

THE WORLD’S BIGGEST PRISON OF JOURNALISTS

Those who would have us believe that what had been attained following the ground allegedly broken in democratic development was “Advanced democracy” stated that press freedom was, ‘In its best period’ in pithy comments taking the form of, “We have unleashed you.” However, in national and international press organisations’ reports, it is stated that Turkey is, “The world’s biggest prison of journalists.” I cannot move on without mentioning that among the 47 members of the Council of Europe, Turkey is the country in which freedom of expression is breached the most, either.

Over the past ten years, “coup” and “coupist” are the words most frequently heard from those in ruling circles and their hangers-on. Every action in opposition to the rulership is proclaimed to be a “coup” and, with even greater ease, everyone in opposition to be a “coupist.” However, in Turkey, whose political history is littered with coups, the subsequent regimes have been greeted with applause by Turkish Islamists.

A JUNTA REGIME TO COURT THE ENVY OF THE COUPISTS USHERED IN

With the spirit of fascism having imbued the state, the assertion by a coup-cheerleader Islamist rulership to have “Held coups and coupists to account” is most interesting. The country was supposedly undergoing “civilianisation” with trials that were launched ten years ago and were concocted in a series of conspiracies in which certain counter-guerrilla remnants were scattered around into files as defendants without their crimes on which these were predicated being subjected to investigation. With on the one hand civilianisation being achieved, more interesting than its supporters who are described as being “Pious and vindictive” being militarised by the rulership itself was the appearance on the scene as coup perpetrators just seven months ago of those who had pushed the button to start the conspiracy trials with the AKP’s political support. The rulership, opportunistically seizing on this bloody insurrection by its former partner in crime, which has left in its wake a whole host of doubt-filled and murky questions, as a “Gift of God,” has ushered in a junta regime to court the envy of the frustrated coupists. The long and short of it is that the answers to the questions of “What is a coup?”, “Who is to be called a coupist?” and “How does civilianisation happen?”, the replies to which are cut and dried in democracies, vary according to people’s political arguments.

The greatest paradox of this illusion of democracy of which many further examples could be cited is the ruling body itself, the very Justice and Development Party. It represents a darker than dark mentality but their party’s emblem is a light-emitting light bulb and the name they give to plundering the state’s and country’s resources and nature and turning the country into a republic of concrete is development. Despite the existence of many similar examples, this trial alone suffices to account for the meaning of the word “justice” that appears in their name. I will summarise what this is a little later, but it will first be appropriate to draw attention to another inequity, to another injustice in which I am also involved.

THE OPERATION TO SILENCE CUMHURİYET: IT IS CLEAR THAT THE INSTRUCTION HAS COME FROM THE RULERSHIP THAT IS ATTEMPTING TO CONCEAL ITS PARTNERSHIP IN CRIME WITH THE GÜLEN BROTHERHOOD

Certain people who should be here today are absent. Two of my lawyers, Bülent Utku and Akın Atalay, and my colleague, Mustafa Kemal Güngör. This does not exhaust the list. My colleagues Murat Sabuncu, Kadri Gürsel, Güray Öz, Turhan Günay, Hakan Kara, Musa Kart and Önder Çelik, who have not at any time left me on my own while I have been on remand, are also absent from the spectators’ gallery. They have been held on remand for 108 days thanks to an investigation that has set out to prosecute journalism targeting our newspaper Cumhuriyet in a conspiracy similar to the one in this trial. In the investigation, being conducted by prosecutor Murat İnam who himself is a “FETO defendant” appointed by Istanbul Republic Chief Prosecutor İrfan Fidan whose brother is alleged to be the administrator for teachers in Ordu Fatsa of the Gülen Brotherhood - known as FETO, the charges levelled against my lawyers and colleagues is “affiliation to FETO.” It is clear that the instruction has come from the ruling circles that are attempting to conceal their partnership in crime with the Gülen Brotherhood, about which it says it was deceived.

Would that this were the full extent of it. I have been brought to this trial in which the brotherhood has conspired to make me a defendant and in which a written opinion has been submitted calling on me to be acquitted along with the other colleagues, while remanded under another investigation charged with making FETO propaganda. Just as in this trial that is expected to end, my journalistic activities are once more being subjected to investigation. That is, there is no other judicial mechanism apart from the brotherhood’s prosecutors and judges, dubbed the “mankurts”. At that time, to ensure that various crimes remained concealed, I fell victim to remand terrorism. It is no different this time. Let nobody doubt that the truth, about which it is wished for nothing to be written, spoken, heard and known, will out, whatever is done.

The crimes in the civil war in Syria whose footprints lead to the intelligence service will certainly be written about, as will the answers to the doubt-filled questions over whether a bloody insurrection that was staged within a false historiography was a controlled coup to bring about needed chaos. Under this rule of evil, we need the truth above all else, because, if it is told, evil will cease to be the final word. In the realisation that not talking, remembering and reminding amounts to self-denial, let us recall the evil that extends from the recent past until today and unfortunately continues. 

WRITTEN OPINION THAT CONCEALED THE PERPETRATORS OF THE BLATANT CONSPIRACY

Had it been down to the prosecution and court bench, this trial would have ended at the previous session. A written opinion that was drafted hastily, refrained from addressing the true nature of the matter, concealed the perpetrators of the blatant conspiracy that was involved and, furthermore, said, “What’s done is done, let it be forgotten” made the holding of a further session inevitable. There was such carelessness that the need was not felt even to name some of the defendants in the trial.

I have read a great many indictments and prosecutors’ opinions, sometimes as a ‘defendant’ when targeted for my journalistic activities and sometimes as a requirement of my profession. I have encountered numerous texts of spurious legal validity about which I have said, “This falls short of the mark as an indictment.” I have lost count of the number, particularly in trials of a political nature, of politically motivated indictments and written opinions seeking conviction. The indictment in which my conviction was sought and the written opinion calling for acquittal is but one of these.

A WRITTEN OPINION THAT CONCEALS THE ROLES OF FETHULLAH GÜLEN AND RECEP TAYYIP ERDOĞAN

If the written opinion calls for my acquittal, it does not eliminate political considerations. The opinion does not point to these or discuss and explain them. It simply remains silent. It calls for acquittal but conceals things. It is an opinion that does not mention the Gülen Brotherhood’s name, does not speak of its partner in crime, the AKP and conceals the roles of Fethullah Gülen and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. As such, a crime has been committed against the truth, just as in the indictment itself. This falls short of the mark as a written opinion.

A number of things have happened in the file since the launching of the investigation until today. Many developments have taken place. My lawyers, who despite this pitiful state of the judiciary have not lost their faith in the supremacy of the law, have been the sole connection that can be made between this trial and the law. They set out what basic rights and freedoms are and their importance and status. They pointed out that the freedom of thought and expression and press freedom are inviolable. They explained with patience that journalism cannot be prosecuted and journalism is not a crime. There was no let-up to their persistence in expounding on the crimes of those who target the freedom of thought and expression and endeavour to destroy press freedom and who set out to prosecute journalism. There must still be no let-up.

THEY WERE A GANG WEARING STATE UNIFORMS

The state is not a hollow concept. Those who from the past until now have usurped the mechanism consisting of the legislative, executive and judicial powers have opposed in a bloody and cruel manner freedom, equality, peace, justice and desires for a human existence and kept the wheels turning for years. There is a need for the way that a state with such a bloody past, a political rulership that endeavoured to create masses who would embrace the orders’ dirt and vengeance on condition of undisputed obedience and without questioning and the “imaginary truth” inside a media monopoly engaged in a partnership in crime were foisted on us to be enshrined in history. Hence, our reply to the written opinion that says, “Come on, let’s forget” is “Come on, let’s remember.”

There were police officers in this trial. They were a gang wearing state uniforms. A gang that monitored the “enemies” they had placed in their sights, intercepted their telephone calls and recorded their conversations and took over their computers and email accounts through hacking. Police officers who attempted to portray journalistic work and professional activities as crimes and filled out the crime reports they compiled with the false evidence they had produced.

THE GÜLEN BROTHERHOOD WERE THEIR LACKEYS

This trial had its prosecutors and judges. The Gülen Brotherhood, a self-proclaimed holy mafia which turned religion into an instrument, were their lackeys in the judicial mechanism. They created a pitch-black hell out of the cumulation of aspersions, gossip, lies, immorality and depravity with the political rulership’s approval and support and called it the “impartial, independent” judiciary. Telling unabashed lies, they set out to prosecute journalism. What they did was nothing more than a crude assault organised by those who surrendered not just their minds and self-respect, but the ethical values of their profession, their moral principles and consciences to a single person or mind set. They were great in number but let me mention the names of two of them before passing on.

The name of one of them was Zekeriya Öz. The only thing that can be said about Zekeriya Öz, deemed to be a “hero” by those who are now his enemy at the time they were partners in crime and for whom certain people with an eye on their interests had no end of praise, and who today is a suspect on the run: He provides the most pithy synopsis of the pitifulness of Turkey’s judiciary and its deplorable state that is far removed from dispensing justice.

The name of another was Mehmet Ekinci. He was the presiding judge on the court bench that was pretending to try us. His signature as judge appeared beneath the orders extending our imprisonment on the grounds of “flight risk” at every hearing. That very Mehmet Ekinci fled when he himself was a defendant. He was a fugitive until recently. He has been apprehended. On being lead to prison, he vindicated the saying that, “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel” by shouting how “patriotic” he was.

THIS TRIAL HAD ITS POLITICIANS

This trial had its politicians. They shared power with a mafia, having usurped it through religious peddling and exploiting the tools of democracy whose enemy they are. They believed with all their might in their partners in crime, whom they thought were targeting the same goals as them. They loved them with all their heart and “Gave them everything they wanted.” Both of them said they were pious but their religions and holy books only spoke to them and their interests. They told the lies that coupists were being held to account and the deep state was being prosecuted. The prime-minister of the day even pronounced himself to be the “prosecutor” of the conspiracy trials. Every lie that suited their purposes was canonically tolerated in their eyes. And this was how they acted. Even though they knew that our professional activities were being subjected to investigation and conspiracies had robbed us of our freedom, they tried to hush up their crimes and sins with the lie that has become the cliché of every dictatorial regime: “They are terrorists not journalists.” When the two partners in crime fell at one another’s throats over who was to wield the power they had usurped through deceit, conspiracy and machinations, they said, “We were deceived.” Stated in the charge book against them is: “They joined hands and tried to deceive everybody.”

There were those who saw the miscarriage of justice and stood up against their supporters with blunted minds and consciences who believed this trial to be just. There were also those who, despite knowing of the unfairness and injustice, were slaves to what they kept hidden and buried themselves in silence. They formed the largest group. At that time, just as today, they await with their deafening silence a person or people who will rescue them from the darkness into which they have fallen. Since they are still silent like shadowy spectators or poor listeners in the face of the interminable injustices of the ongoing evil, they have sunk even further into the darkness from which they wish to be rescued. However, the required course of action is crying out before them, today as it was yesterday: To opt to embrace the truth rather than being the slave of unfeasible fantasies and to say ‘No’ in unison to this oppression-filled darkness.

THEY ASSUMED THE ROLE OF CHARACTER ASSASSINS

This trial had its journalists. They were modest. They stood up for the honour of their profession and colleagues. A handful of journalists who braved risks of all kinds and displayed one of the finest examples of solidarity entered their names into the annals of journalism.

This trial also had its other journalists. They were willing to debase themselves. They either remained silent or participated in the crime, or else, through turning reality on its head and concealing the truth, assumed the role of character assassins. They premised their survival on the force they were in league with remaining in power.

Their loyalty was false, their self-interest was real. So, their voice was that of whoever was their master. Without forcing themselves and without any sense of regret, in total disregard of moral values of all kinds, they entered their names in the annals of history in showing that there is no limit to the depths and extent of the depravity to which a person can sink. 

And we were the journalists who stood in the dock in this trial, named in an indictment that redefined journalism in the interests of ensuring the continuation of a criminal order that had been established and endeavoured to further restrict the limits on press freedom. We stood accused of the reports and comments we had penned, our statements and our books, either published or whose publication had been prevented.

THOSE IT WAS WISHED TO SILENCE WITH BOMBS AND BULLETS

This was because we refused to fall into the trap of the language games of a rulership that was striving to render its totalitarianism commonplace through shaping even daily language. 

We sought out the truth whose eradication was sought from the place where obedience held sway. We did not know that those who represented the fear that was contagious and capable of spreading into the memory were slaves, while those journalists who stood by reality and the truth in the readiness to relinquish what they would lose were free. 

The most valuable legacy left to us by the doyens of our profession on whom we have modelled ourselves is that imparting what those in power or power centres want to be heard is not journalism. The wish existed in the past just like today to mete out so-called punishment to the bequeathers of this legacy through imprisonment or banishment. When this was not enough, it was wished to silence them through killing them with bombs and bullets. The fight against journalists to censor the truth by those who believe themselves to possess power has been going on for as long as there has been journalism on this soil.

However, this effort is in vain, because, whoever you are, you cannot fight an idea that draws its strength from the truth. If you think you are waging a war, know that you cannot win. You will lose once more.

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