Coming to terms with them is surrendering to them

AYDIN ENGİN

The election is over. Ahmet Şık, to whom I am as close as to my son, has become an MP and has attained immunity. In fact, he copped a seven-and-a-half-year sentence in our Cumhuriyet trial. Even if the Court of Cassation now upholds the sentence, Ahmet Şık won’t do time.

Should we be glad about this?

My friend Enis Berberoğlu was also re-elected to parliament. He and his friends like me are counting the days if not the hours. Enis Berberoğlu has re-attained immunity and should be released at once.

Should we be glad about this?

Detained Leyla Güven was elected as an MP for Hakkâri. Diyarbakır Serious Crime Court No 10 ordered her continued detention. Let them do so. Those judges, too, will sooner or later learn about the notion of immunity and release Leyla Güven.

Should we be glad about this?

The judgment on the Zaman newspaper columnists has attained finality. İhsan Duran Dağı, Lalezar Sarıibrahimoğlu, Mehmet Özdemir, Nuriye Ural and Orhan Kemal Cengiz were acquitted.

Should we be glad about this?

Ahmet Turan Alkan, sentenced to imprisonment in the same trial, was also released.

Should we be glad about this?

Mümtazer Türköne and Mustafa Ünal, charged with the same “crime” in the same trial, were not released.

Should we be sad about this?

Mehmet Altan, sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment, was released because his case has been taken up by the Constitutional Court.

Should we be glad about this?

Ahmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak, tried for the same “crime” and awarded the same sentence, continue to pace up and down in Silivri dungeon because their cases have not been taken up by the Constitutional Court.

Should we be sad about this?

The court passed judgment in our Cumhuriyet trial. They acquitted our colleagues Turhan Günay, Bülent Yener and Günseli Özaltay.

Should we be glad about this?

All the remaining defendants were sentenced to jail terms of at least two-and-a-half years and mostly eight years three months and fifteen days.

Should we be sad about this?

However, nobody remains in detention in our Cumhuriyet trial. Everyone has been released.

Should we be glad about this?

I could go on. But I won’t.

Those whose names I haven’t mentioned should fit themselves into the above paragraphs.

They should feel no doubt that the questions, “Should we be glad about this?” and “Should we be sad about this?” also apply to them.

***

Let me give a global reply to the questions “Should we be sad?” or “Should we be glad?” that have cropped up throughout the column:

No. A thousand times no.

Being glad about release orders, release pending trial orders or even acquittal orders amounts to coming to terms with the regime that the AKP Chief, his party and those sheltering in his shadow have put together bit by bit and secured legality for in the last election (not legitimacy, legality), and this means surrendering to that regime.

And it means nothing else.

Both the question that must be asked and the thing for which accountability must be sought with doggedness and persistence is also a single sentence:

Why were those I mentioned and those I did not tried; why were they charged under indictments by the regime’s prosecutors who have been taken captive and brought before its judges?

Those who today say with unforgivable audacity that democracy exists in this country, the rule of law applies and freedoms are guaranteed are each democracy and law criminals until they answer this question.

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