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Turkey's Deep State

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Turkey's Deep State #1.12 PERSPECTIVES Political analysis and commentary from Turkey FEATURE ARTICLES TURKEY’S DEEP STATE CULTURE INTERNATIONAL POLITICS ECOLOGY AKP’s Cultural Policy: Syria: The Case of the Seasonal Agricultural Arts and Censorship “Arab Spring” Workers in Turkey Pelin Başaran Transforming into the Sidar Çınar Page 28 “Arab Revolution” Page 32 Cengiz Çandar Page 35 TURKEY REPRESENTATION Content Editor’s note 3 ■ Feature articles: Turkey’s Deep State Tracing the Deep State, Ayşegül Sabuktay 4 The Deep State: Forms of Domination, Informal Institutions and Democracy, Mehtap Söyler 8 Ergenekon as an Illusion of Democratization, Ahmet Şık 12 Democratization, revanchism, or..., Aydın Engin 16 The Near Future of Turkey on the Axis of the AKP-Gülen Movement, Ruşen Çakır 18 Counter-Guerilla Becoming the State, the State Becoming the Counter-Guerilla, Ertuğrul Mavioğlu 22 Is the Ergenekon Case an Opportunity or a Handicap? Ali Koç 25 The Dink Murder and State Lies, Nedim Şener 28 ■ Culture Freedom of Expression in the Arts and the Current State of Censorship in Turkey, Pelin Başaran 31 ■ Ecology Solar Energy in Turkey: Challenges and Expectations, Ateş Uğurel 33 A Brief Evaluation of Seasonal Agricultural Workers in Turkey, Sidar Çınar 35 ■ International Politics Syria: The Case of the “Arab Spring” Transforming into the “Arab Revolution”, Cengiz Çandar 38 Turkey/Iran: A Critical Move in the Historical Competition, Mete Çubukçu 41 ■ Democracy 4+4+4: Turning the Education System Upside Down, Aytuğ Şaşmaz 43 “Health Transformation Program” and the 2012 Turkey Health Panorama, Mustafa Sütlaş 46 How Multi-Faceted are the Problems of Freedom of Opinion and Expression in Turkey?, Şanar Yurdatapan 48 Crimes against Humanity and Persistent Resistance against Cruel Policies, Nimet Tanrıkulu 49 ■ News from hbs 53 Heinrich Böll Stiftung – Turkey Representation The Heinrich Böll Stiftung, associated with the German Green Party, is a legally autonomous and intellectually open political foundation. Our foremost task is civic education in Germany and abroad with the aim of promoting informed democratic opinion, socio-political commitment and mutual understanding. In addition the Heinrich Böll Stiftung supports artistic and cultural as well as scholarly projects, and co- operation in the development field. The political values of ecology, democracy, gender democracy, solidarity and nonviolence are our chief points of reference. Heinrich Böll’s belief in and promotion of citizen participation in politics is the model for the foundation’s work. Editor in chief: Dr. Ulrike Dufner, Heinrich Böll Stiftung Turkey Representation, İnönü Cad. Hacı Hanım Sok. No. 10/12, Gümüşsuyu Istanbul; Telephone: +90-212-2491554 Fax: +090-212-2450430 email: [email protected] web: www.tr.boell.org Editor: Kathleen Hamilton Translation: Esin Aslan, Defne Orhun Print Production: Farika Tasarım Printing House: Özgün Basım Tanıtım San. Tic. Ltd. Şti., Yeşilce Mah. Aytekin Sok. No:21, Otosanayi - Seyrantepe - Istanbul, Tel: +90-212 280 00 09 Perspectives – Political analyses and commentary from Turkey will appear quarterly and distributed for free. Printed copies can be ordered either by email from [email protected] The magazine and each article can be downloaded from our webpage www.tr.boell.org ■ Democracy ■ Ecology ■ Culture ■ International Politics Editor’s note urkey’s agenda is changing at an incredible opinion leaders in Turkey and, particularly, in speed. This change makes itself felt in Europe as well as for those who are watching and every area of society. Social, legal and trying to understand the developments in Turkey. political changes happen in many fields; Each magazine will present feature articles, articles from economy to culture and internal on ecology, democratization, culture, international Tpolitics, from environmental issues to external politics and news from hbs. Each issue also politics. This social transformation process seems contains a short biography in an attempt to present to be sharpening the already existing polarization the impact of the developments in Turkey from a within society. It seems that the AKP government human perspective. employs more and more populist and authoritative The feature articles of this first issue deal with methods instead of following a democratic path the historical background and recent developments in this transformation process. In such critical concerning the “deep state” of Turkey. We periods of sharpened polarization, the role of the regard the “deep state” as one of the important governments is to provide an opportunity for social impediments in the democratization of this country. transformation to materialize in a peaceful and With the different reforms that led to a change in democratic environment. Therefore, the role of the the civil-military relationship, with the law suits political actors and civil society is also of great such as the Ergenekon trial, and with the trial importance. against responsible personality of the coup d’état The media in particular plays a significant role in 1980, it became a much discussed topic; if the in helping to understand the society of Turkey and AKP government attempts to destroy the deep state; to grasp the reflections of this change on various if it is accommodating to it or just changing the political and social areas. However, suffering from actors of the “deep state”. In our first issue, we try multi-dimensional structural shortcomings, as to give answer to these questions. In addition to the well as political and legal pressures, the media in feature articles, topical articles on issues such as Turkey is not able to play this role sufficiently. The the reform of the educational system, censorship in prevalent approach to journalism that blurs the the arts as well as the renewable energy law and the difference between news reporting and commentary reform of the health system are addressed. and handles the issues with a partisan attitude has We very much hope that Perspectives does not shaken the trust in the media in Turkey. Therefore, only provide political analysis and commentary on there is a gap of profound analysis and information Turkey but also contributes to a fruitful and lively supporting readers inside and outside of Turkey in debate on issues of importance for a peaceful, drawing their own conclusions. democratic and sustainable future of Turkey. With This is relevant for the reader outside of Turkey, round table discussions that we will organize on the especially for those who monitor social change topic of the feature articles, we would also like to and responding politics. Not being able to access discuss intensively with you. accurate and complete news and information and a lack of comprehensive analyses make it difficult On behalf of the Turkey Representation of the for those who want to understand Turkey, but who Heinrich Böll Stiftung cannot speak the Turkish language. It is also striking to see the limited number of topics raised in articles Your on Turkey published abroad. Scarcity of publications Perspectives Turkey Team in foreign languages about Turkey, and particularly about actual political issues, is yet another problem. News reports and articles about Turkey generally focus on foreign politics, economy and, occasionally, internal politics. In general, they are merely event- based. Issues like social transformation, political systems, environment, ecology, or art are brought to light by only a few news reports and analyses in other languages. Understanding the transformation of Turkey requires more diverse analyses of a higher quality for the reader inside and outside of Turkey. Aiming to fill this gap, the Turkey Representation of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung (hbs) has decided to publish a periodical, “Perspectives – Political Analysis and Commentary from Turkey”, in both Turkish and English. This quarterly periodical strives to be a source of reference for civil society, decision makers, PHOTO: VOLKAN DOĞAR Heinrich Böll Stiftung 3 Tracing the Deep State ✱ o write and speak about the deep state in the deep state; however, until then the Turkish state Turkey means to handle an issue both well still could not investigate the legendary organization known and unfamiliar at the same time. JITEM.5 Since 2009, our daily lives were suddenly The “Deep State” is usually defined by the occupied with the TV news about police raids and metaphor of an iceberg, which is an image court-house images related to the Ergenekon, Oda Talmost everyone is familiar with, that is believed to TV, Sledgehammer (Balyoz), Internet Memorandum be there and that becomes visible from time to time. (İnternet Andıcı), Revolutionist Headquarters For some, it has been “liquidated and tried in court”. (Devrimci Karargah), KCK (Union of Communities Wikileaks documents revealed that only 12 days after in Kurdistan) cases initiated by specially authorized the coming to power of the Justice and Development courts and prosecutors established by a decision of Party (AKP) in 2002, the US Ambassador in Ankara the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HCJP). sent a report titled “Deep State in Turkey” to Wash- Some of these cases were linked to the Ergenekon ington in which he stated; “Deep State supremacy case. The idea that “Turkey was cleared of the deep is being challenged step by step with openness rare state” started to circulate. The questions of whether in the history of the Turkish Republic.”1 According to the deep state has been liquidated by the new order the report, “what Turks refer to as the Deep State” established by AKP and whether this structure is the is the “informal, para-judicial governance motivated most urgent problem of the state or not still remain. by an expansive definition of national security.”2 The first time a structure, that defines itself as the Ergenekon and the Gladio “deep state”, was brought to court was in 2008, with The subject of the lawsuit process, Ergenekon is the Ergenekon Trial. Run after all those years, and claimed to be an organization established during believed to have connections with many murders by the Cold War period.
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