Hakkı Taş (2009) ‘Will Turkey Benefit from Ergenekon?’ Le Monde Diplomatique, November 18. Full Text
Excerpt: For many observers, the continuing trial is more than a legal case against a gang: rather, they see it as a historic opportunity to confront the long existence of covert networks within the state. Some compare the case to the anti-corruption Clean Hands operation in Italy in the early 1990s which led to the demise of the First Republic. And the European Commission, in its last progress report on Turkey, described the trial as “an opportunity for Turkey to strengthen confidence in the proper functioning of its democratic institutions and the rule of law.” Other Turks, however, invoke the legacy of McCarthyism because of the highly political nature of the investigation. They think the case is an opportunity for the AKP to eliminate its secular opponents, and they are concerned at the advances in authority which the government is securing at the expense of the military.
Hakkı Taş 