‘‘Erdoğan Knew of Balyoz, Ergenekon Operations’’
Following claims of pro-AKP writers who alleged that ‘In the scope of Ergenekon, journalists were going to be arrested,’ Emre Uslu, Taraf newspaper writer who spoke to police officers who assigned in such schemes, has shocked Turkey and observers of the case by writing that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan was aware of all operations going on.
Taraf newspaper writer Emre (Emrullah) Uslu, who is their source in the police, confessed in his piece on Monday that Erdoğan had informations on the operations directed with the hand of the Gülen sect, claiming that he had spoken to police officers who had been gotten rid of after the 7 February, and had taken on critical tasks in the operations of Ergenekon and Balyoz etc after he had been stayed in Utah for eight years.
In his article, Uslu shared the statements of police who had investigated the Odatv trial, and stated that in all stages of the Odatv trial from the beginning to the end, Tayyip Erdoğan had taken information as to what was going on.
According to former police officers who spoke to Uslu, Erdoğan thinks that a team of Aydınlık staff was behind trial to close the AKP. According to the expression of those police officers, Uslu claimed that “the main framework of the [AKP] closing indictment was prepared in places outside of the high court by a team of Aydınlık staff,” writing further that “a team of Aydınlık staff in the media took on critical roles in the period of this trial.” According to those police officers, Erdoğan thinks that a shuttle exists between the high court and the Aydınlık staff, while according to what Uslu wrote in his article, Erdoğan and his close team believed that while operations were being done against the Aydınlık journal and Ulusal Kanal, this mission had come against Odatv.
“However many people and establishments there are supporting the Ergenekon trial, it is being determined also that operational publication are being made against them one by one. When the discoveries found in operations of the police during the Ergenekon trial were presented to the PM together with the prosecutors, it was being stated that the green light was given for the trial of Odatv due to the PM thinking that Aydınlık staff had played a critical role in the trial to close the AKP. Like in the other Ergenekon investigations, in the Odatv investigation too in every phase concerning work given to police, the Prime Minister was informed and it is being expressed that the PM had given the order ‘If there’s evidence, don’t stop, carry on.’ The sources with whom I spoke are clearly stating this: The Prime Minister was aware of the process of Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener being arrested.”
According to the statements of Gülenist police officers who spoke to Emre Uslu, the Ergenekon scheme, and the whole of the Aydınlık, Ulusal Kanal, and Odatv operations were done with the knowledge of Erdoğan and in fact were carried out with his guidance, and it is being emphasised that in the operations, the Gülen community did not act alone, and that the AKP were a partner in the process. In a speech made in parliament on the 15 July 2008, Erdoğan revealed his role saying “I am the Ergenekon prosecutor.”
Erdoğan who later backpedaled, attempted to explain himself by saying “The leader of the main opposition party is saying something about me, he is citing that I am a prosecutor. I made no such expression anywhere. The expression I used was this: I am a lawyer of the nation.”