Last week, with a dispensation from the Ministry of Justice, I paid a visit to Silivri Prison. I interviewed retired Hursit Tolon, who was detained for the Malatya Zirve Publishing House Massacre trial. Apart from the ordinary detainees and convicts, Silivri Prison also hosts suspects of the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer probes. Most of the Ergenekon suspects were discharged, while suspects of Sledgehammer remain. However, Tolon is an exception. In the beginning, he was jailed pending trial in the Ergenekon case but he was once again charged with the same kind of trial for the Malatya Massacre in 2013. This was ignored as he was already imprisoned for the Ergenekon probe. However, in the Ergenekon case, judges took up a position in favor of trial without arrest and his fellow prisoners, who were judged in the same probe, were released while he remained in the jail.
Indeed, the Malatya probe is a highly interesting case file. The trial regarding the killers of Christian missionaries slaughtered three months after the assassination of Hrant Dink in 2007 has not yet been clarified. However, it is getting more complicated by day. An anonymous witness came out three years after the murder put forward that the National Strategies and Operations Department of Turkey (TUSHAD), a clandestine organization within the Turkish Armed Forces, planned the murder and this department was headed by Tolon. That is why Tolon was involved in the case. But there is no concrete evidence or records to justify the claims of Ilker Çınar, who later became both a witness and suspect.
During my one hour interview in the prison, Tolon said, "The Malatya trial offends me much more than the Ergenekon. How do they accuse me of murder?"
When I asked, "Who put you in this situation and why, in your opinion?" he replied, "Definitely the reason of this situation is to carry Malatya to Ergenekon. Coincidentally, I was delivering a conference in Malatya on the same day as the Malatya Massacre. That is why I was chosen." Tolon had given a speech about Turkey's internal and external enemies on the same day in Malatya. This was scheduled months in advance.
When I touched upon the structure of the Gülen Movement, which infiltrated government institutions, he stated without any doubt, "All of what [Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan said since the Dec. 17 operation is completely true. The police officers, prosecutors and judges are all manipulated. If you reopen Ergenekon, you will see all of these in it. I am exposed to the heaviest parallel plot. When Zekeriya Öz, the prosecutor of Ergenekon, saw me, he had already decided to execute me. He said, 'Why do you deliver conferences instead of entertaining yourself?' " Tolon continued, "At that time, I was going from one city to another to warn about the reactionary construction and to draw attention to the Gülenist's danger." What Tolon told made me think that he and many others were used as front men to settle scores. We know how the military command was discomforted when the AK Party came into rule. The general staff that regarded itself above politics considered it had the authority to intervene as it wishes. However, have some of those who see this handicap confirmed this plot by producing false evidences and scenarios?
Ergenekon, which is a case of confrontation with coups and the deep state for the first time in Turkey, was a platform that should have been supported and considered as a process of purification by all democrats. However, the elucidation of this rightful platform from the
dichotomy of whether it is used as a screen or not is a responsibility for all democrats.
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