However it gets complicated. If there isn’t hard evidence, and there is a growing anxiety over the evidence issue, then it is impossible to support this raid. This is despite the fact that I have no sympathy for Soner Yalçın and his gang at Oda.TV, an influential website with idiosyncratic left leanings, anti-AKP and pro-Ergenekon approaches. Soner Yalçın is now a press freedom hero for some but let me remind you. His book, Efendi, is covertly anti-semitic, he has dark relations with some sections of Turkish deep state, and Oda.tv is a slander machine. I could easily be labelled as traitor, pro-American etc and in fact they did not shy away doing that for many liberal columnists. Still, do i support the police raid? If there is no hard evidence that links them to Ergenekon gang, I definetely do not support the raid. We should learn to live with real opponents.
Oda TV’s Soner Yalçın is among the detained…
Four Oda TV writers in Custody after “Ergenekon” Raid
The Istanbul office of the Oda TV internet site was searched along with the homes of four writers of the website “in the scope of the Ergenekon investigation”. Journalists association criticized the raid as undemocratic and worrisome.
News in Turkish and more photos here.
Journalists as defense lawyers
by YAVUZ BAYDAR
Turkey?s media — the most problematic sector in the country — has become further polarized with the arrest warrants issued by the judge of the spectacular ?Sledgehammer? case. The uniqueness of the trial is beyond question, and so is its political nature. Ten or so years ago no one could have imagined that a large chunk of high-ranking officers could even be prosecuted for crimes of this nature, let alone be put under arrest by civilian courts. Its shockwaves shattered, more than anything else, the media.
The odatv.com case
by FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK
The detention of Soner Yalçın, the owner and administrator of the news portal odatv.com, and several others as part of a probe into the Ergenekon terrorist organization earlier this week quickly prompted Ergenekon supporters to define the detentions as a blow to ?freedom of the press.?
Communication recommendations for Sledgehammer
by BÜLENT KORUCU
Relatives and lawyers of suspects who have been arrested as part of the Sledgehammer coup plan case are trying to take up the battle outside of the courtroom. They can do whatever they want as long as they remain within the limits of democracy and the law.
Öcalan?s rationality
by LALE KEMAL
There are fears that violence may resume next month, mainly in the predominantly Kurdish, war-stricken southeastern parts of Turkey, if the Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) terrorist organization fails to abide by its self-declared cease-fire, in effect until the June general elections.
Soner Yalçın and the raid on ‘odatv.com’
by HDN
If there really is freedom of the press, then a journalist should be treated like a journalist. If you detain every dissident correspondent, the name of your regime is not democracy.
Ahu Ozyurt: Erdogan’s Police Storms Website in Turkey
Turkish journalist arrested over alleged conspiracy to topple government
Police raided Soner Yalcin’s news website headquarters after it posted a video allegedly discrediting officers investigating the network
Police on Monday searched the premises of a dissident news website and detained its owner over possible links to an alleged secularist network accused of conspiring to topple the Turkish government.
Police raided the Istanbul headquarters of the Oda TV website and the homes of its owner, journalist and author Soner Yalcin, and three colleagues, lawyer Serkan Gunel told reporters.
Turkey ?Sledgehammer? Plot Investigators Detain OdaTV Journalists
by By SEBNEM ARSU
Military figures were also ordered arrested in the longstanding inquiry into a suspected plan for a coup.
“Detention as a Means of Punishment”
Bianet
This concerns first of all the “Sledgehammer” case which made the headlines in the beginning of this week because of the latest decision to arrest a total of 163 retired and active military officers; furthermore the Ergenekon trial, the KCK trial with
Bianet
This concerns first of all the “Sledgehammer” case which made the headlines in the beginning of this week because of the latest decision to arrest a total of 163 retired and active military officers; furthermore the Ergenekon trial, the KCK trial with
Turkish opposition furious at government over Sledgehammer detentions
Hurriyet Daily News
The Balyoz case came nearly two years after the same prosecutors launched a comprehensive investigation and trial into an alleged coup plot known as Ergenekon involving prominent figures of the society on charges of attempting to overthrow the
Hurriyet Daily News
The Balyoz case came nearly two years after the same prosecutors launched a comprehensive investigation and trial into an alleged coup plot known as Ergenekon involving prominent figures of the society on charges of attempting to overthrow the
Balyoz arrests
by FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK
Following the discovery of abundant evidence about the Sledgehammer coup probe at the Gölcük Naval Command in early December, prosecutors could no longer remain blind to the new evidence, which showed that Sledgehammer was beyond a coup plan and that some parts of it had been put into practice.
Kemalist delusions in Sledgehammer case
by EMRE USLU
The main parameters of Turkish domestic politics have changed since the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) came to power. Except for a few years in Turkish republican history, governments never earned their legitimacy through public support. Just like the illegitimate regimes of the Middle East, the establishment in Turkey, and especially the military establishment, received its approval and legitimacy through its bizarre relations with the West, and especially with Washington, D.C.
How will a new Turkey be established?
by Şamil Tayyar
When it first came to power in 2002, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) was just a government; it was not in power in the real sense. The civilian and military bureaucratic elite was positioned at the center of power, and they were not willing to hand it over to the national will in accordance with the election results.
Balyoz is Balyoz!
by Sanem Altan
If the Sledgehammer (Balyoz) coup plot documents are authentic, it becomes obvious that the Turkish military prepared a coup plan and that there is a military in question which planned to kill its citizens without any hesitation. It is really difficult to refer to such an institution as a military.
CHP and the invisible power structures of the Turkish state tradition by Yahya Sezai Tezel
from Today’s Zaman, your gateway to Turkish daily news :: Interviews by YAHYA SEZAİ TEZEL
In democracies there are no technical rights or wrongs of economic policy issues independent of political values and choices arising from worldviews, class and other group interests. Let us assume that, despite my serious doubts, Faik Öztrak Jr., who has been parachuted to the post of deputy chairman of the Republican People?s Party (CHP) responsible for economic policy issues, is a fine economic policy implementer.
The bad fate of the pro-coup generals
by ERGUN BABAHAN
Just as we were trying to understand the course of the developments in the Sledgehammer coup case, a surprising development took place in Pakistan.
New surprises in Balyoz
by Adem Yavuz Arslan
The arrest of 163 generals as part of the Sledgehammer coup probe fell like a bombshell on the national agenda. Looking at the environment of Ankara, it is possible to say that there could be many firsts in the Sledgehammer trial. The arrest of so many military officers is certainly attracting the attention of politicians.
Efforts to downplay Balyoz
by FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK
The arrest of most of the 163 Sledgehammer suspects for whom an İstanbul court recently issued arrest warrants drew negative reactions from some circles in society, who claim that the arrests of military officers, some of whom are former force commanders, is unjust.
Reason and our military
by Eser Karakaş
Due to the arrests in the Sledgehammer case, the TSK has become the main item on Turkey?s agenda. This time, it is the former force commanders who are being arrested. Let?s make some assessments.
Balyoz arrests
by FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK
Following the discovery of abundant evidence about the Sledgehammer coup probe at the Gölcük Naval Command in early December, prosecutors could no longer remain blind to the new evidence, which showed that Sledgehammer was beyond a coup plan and that some parts of it had been put into practice.
Alleged Turkey coup plot leader surrenders
from FT.com – World, Europe
The alleged head of a 2003 plot to overthrow the Ankara government surrenders to police after a court orders the arrest of 162 retired and serving military officers
[The New CHP by a liberal-social democrat – 2] Is The CHP a political party? by Yahya Sezai Tezel
by YAHYA SEZAİ TEZEL
It is sad to witness the decline of the Republican People’s Party (CHP). Even İsmet İnönü, who had extensive experience in a single party dictatorship, led his party after the introduction of free elections and a multiparty parliamentary regime in the 1946-1950 period, relying on the principles and values of representation.
Will liberals join the ranks of the CHP?
by Berat Özipek
The Republican People?s Party (CHP) is the party of a privileged segment of society. It was so in the past, and it is so today. The fact that the party is not at peace with democracy results from it representing the privileges of such a grass roots. The party?s ideology, which is Kemalism, helps it legitimize these privileges.
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