Deep state

For me, the arrest of Kemal Kerincsiz appeals to my imagination. He’s an ultra-nationalist lawyer, who is notorious for the lawsuits he started against writers and journalists like Orhan Pamuk, Elif Safak and Hrant Dink because they insulted ‘Turkishness’. Harmful cases in my opinion, because they provoked emotions that even led to murder.
And now Kerincsiz himself is behind bars. It seems that the emotions his lawsuits stirred up and the violence they led to, were exactly his intention. His intention, and that of a group of other powerful men, working together in a gang called Ergenekon. Turkish newspapers have been writing about it for days. The operation against Ergenekon is the biggest ever against what’s called the ‘deep state’ here: a network of gangs consisting of highly placed military personnel and bureaucrats. Those who have links with the deep state usually don’t have much to fear from the law. Connections and power provide protection.

There have been operations against the deep state before, but they hardly ever led to more transparency, prosecution or convictions. This time, the newspapers write, strong prosecutors and firm judges have to be put on the job to unravel Ergenekon to the core. Was Ergenekon behind the several political murders in the last few years? Were there indeed plans to kill Orhan Pamuk, and Kurdish politicians, and even prime minister Tayyip Erdogan? All this to create chaos, after which the army would restore order and the deep state would openly be in charge?
It is all beyond comprehension. Maybe that’s why I can’t get this Kerincsiz out of my mind. The cases he started and their consequences are so clear and tangible, that they at least provide some concrete image of Ergenekon. The rest is beyond my imagination. Maybe this time they will succeed in making the deep state more visible and maybe a real start can be made towards destroying it. By the way, many Turks don’t have much faith in that. The deep state, they believe, is just there, and by its very nature indestructable. And that makes almost frightening sense.