The conference was chaired by Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a lawyer by profession and president of the association, and Bekir Berat Özipek, an academic at İstanbul Commerce University. Turkish and foreign journalists as well as members of the Young Civilians, a group promoting democracy in Turkey, also attended the conference. The Young Civilians also contributed to the booklet, which was printed in English. Cengiz, who spoke on behalf of all contributors of the booklet, said they decided to prepare such a document in order to fight vast misconceptions about the Ergenekon case, particularly abroad.

“I was in Washington seven months ago. There I saw that there is a huge lobby working for Ergenekon. Ergenekon is, unfortunately, a completely different story abroad. They [the lobby] keep claiming that no such organization as Ergenekon exists. Then we started to think what we could do to fight the misconceptions. We scanned all Western media and saw that 90 percent of Ergenekon-related stories were in favor of the Ergenekon organization.

Then I collected many arguments raised by critics of the Ergenekon case as hypotheses and called a group of intellectuals, analysts, human rights advocates and journalists for a two-day workshop to respond to the arguments. We compiled the responses in our booklet: Ergenekon Is Our Reality,” stated Cengiz, about the booklet’s background.

Dozens of suspected members of the Ergenekon gang, including those from the military, academia and the business world, are currently in prison pending trial on coup charges. Many others are accused of contributing to devious plans to destroy Parliament and topple the government albeit not under arrest.

Ergenekon hearings have been taking place since October 2008. Critics of the Ergenekon case argue that the case targets Turkey’s military and secular circles as it is a maneuver by the government to weaken and eventually get rid of the secular order in the country.

According to Cengiz, however, the case is Turkey confronting its past, which is filled with shadowy acts of crime that mainly targeted non-Muslims, pious Muslims, Alevis, Kurds and intellectuals.

“Opponents of the [Ergenekon] case claim that the case is supported only by circles close to the government. For me, it is quite natural because these circles were the actual targets of the planned acts of Ergenekon. Furthermore, the case has gained the support of many others other than the supporters of the [Justice and Development Party (AK Party)] government, contrary to claims,” Cengiz remarked.

Ergenekon suspects are accused of having a hand in Turkey’s darkest incidents, including mass murders. For example, some suspects are blamed for the Gazi events of 1995, in which 17 people were killed in İstanbul’s Alevi-dominated Gazi neighborhood when unidentified individuals opened fire on a local café.

Other crimes Ergenekon is suspected to have had a hand in include the August 2001 murder of Üzeyir Garih, a Jewish-Turkish businessman stabbed to death in a Muslim cemetery in İstanbul’s Eyüp district; the 2002 murder of secularist academic Necip Hablemitoğlu; and the 2006 murder of businessman Özdemir Sabancı.

The accusations also include three coup attempts by military generals in the early 2000s codenamed Blonde Girl, Moonlight and Glove.

The “Ergenekon Is Our Reality” booklet mentions 10 main arguments put forward by Ergenekon critics, which are refuted in a group evaluation of participants of the above-mentioned workshop. The workshop was attended by nearly 50 individuals, including journalists, columnists, bar association members, rights activists and jurists.

Cengiz mentioned one of the arguments, which concerns the alleged “violation of the human rights” of suspects in the case. According to the argument, individuals were detained and arrested in violation of the law as part of the Ergenekon probe.

The veteran lawyer responded to the argument, saying: “Rights violations are not unique to the Ergenekon case. It stems from the Turkish legal system, which has many shortcomings and flaws. Human rights advocates say they are very surprised to see people speaking about rights violations in the Ergenekon case though they turn a blind eye to similar violations in other cases in which simple or ordinary people are tried. Furthermore, no allegation of torture or mistreatment has been made yet, though nearly 300 people have been arrested as part of the case thus far. The suspects were never denied the right to access to lawyers, either. Even some suspects are defended by 10 lawyers.”

He also said there are no limits on the length of the defense statements delivered by Ergenekon suspects during the trial. “Some suspects spent 15 days making defense [statements]. This is unbelievable. No other suspect in a different case would be given that chance,” Cengiz stated.

Kemal Kerinçsiz, an ultranationalist lawyer, spent 60 hours testifying in his own defense over the course of 12 hearings. Four hearings were devoted to Workers’ Party (İP) leader Doğu Perinçek’s 18.5-hour-long defense statement. The prosecution also spent many days reading the Ergenekon indictments aloud.

Timing of Ergenekon case, pressure on prosecutors

In a question-and-answer session, one of the journalists asked why prosecutors overseeing the Ergenekon probe picked 2007 and 2008 to start such a gigantic case. Cengiz, in response, pointed to the importance of the emergence of the evidence related to the Ergenekon criminal organization and the political atmosphere available for the launch and conduct of such an inquest.

“I chatted with one of the Ergenekon prosecutors before. He said he did not know what they were following at the beginning of the Ergenekon probe. They did not know where the emerging evidence would take them. They felt there was something extraordinary with what they were probing. After a while, it turned out to be the Ergenekon case,” he said.

Cengiz also said Ergenekon prosecutors would not be able to maintain such a large-scale case if the political atmosphere did not permit it.

“However, Ergenekon prosecutors are under immense pressure. This pressure stems from the judiciary itself, as well. An Ergenekon prosecutor once complained that a chief prosecutor had given them massive documents to examine, but none of them were related to the Ergenekon case. Such paperwork is most probably aimed at keeping the prosecutors busy and preventing them from spending the necessary time on the Ergenekon case,” he noted.

Asked whether the Ergenekon case will take decades before its conclusion, Cengiz said, “Absolutely not.”

“There are court sessions almost every day. If this were an ordinary case, it’d be right to expect it to take many years to reach conclusion. But we are talking about the Ergenekon case. Prosecutors and judges are working hard to conclude the case as soon as possible,” he added.

Ergenekon hearings are held at the Silivri courthouse in İstanbul four days a week. The prosecution examines documents (indictments and folders of evidence) on the fifth day, which saves a great amount of time in the case.

Objection to case due to ‘allergy’ to AK Party

Cengiz also drew attention to a point that hints at people’s objection to the Ergenekon case. According to the lawyer, most people have a strong position toward the case only because they are “allergic” to the AK Party.

Among the participants of the said workshop were İstanbul Bar Association member Fethiye Çetin, Agos weekly Editor-in-Chief Etyen Mahçupyan, former public prosecutor Reşat Petek, former head of Diyarbakır Bar Association Sezgin Tanrıkulu and political analyst Ahmet Turan Ayhan.

Today’s Zaman

03 July 2010, Saturday

Though still hard to believe, that is exactly what the Young Civilians have managed to do in a few years with their indisputably inspiring performance, according to many observers.

“Young [military] officers uncomfortable” was the main headline of the ultranationalist Cumhuriyet daily on May 23, 2003, which inspired the group to choose “Young Civilians” as the name of their organization and a red athletic shoe as its symbol as an apparent protest against soldiers’ boots. Courage, wisdom, dynamism and a strong sense of humor have helped them gain wide public appreciation since then. Currently, the group is still not that big, composed of a few thousand subscribers to its network, but has a much larger popular support base throughout the country. Interviewed by Sunday’s Zaman, academic experts on civil society, activists and artists underlined that the key to their success is that they are heterogeneous with respect to ethnicity and religious conviction without having any political affiliation and employ political satire very effectively for widely sought-after values such as democracy, cultural pluralism and respect for human rights.

Non-polarized, impartial stance

People have so far seen the Young Civilians protesting against the government, the opposition parties, the army and the judiciary, simply everyone they think has breached any of the values they fight for.

The last time the Young Civilians hit the headlines was when they organized the “First Traditional Folder-Carrying Footrace” from the Republican People’s Party (CHP) headquarters to the Constitutional Court in Ankara last week, mocking the main opposition because it has run to the top court after every government bill aimed at raising democratic standards in the country. However, only a week ago, the group’s stance was no less critical of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan following his remarks on the possibility of deporting all Armenian citizens illegally working in the country.

Certainly, the military and the judiciary have received the lion’s share of their criticism. When the General Staff issued a threatening and poorly written memorandum against the government in the middle of the night on April 27, 2007, the group swiftly issued a counter-statement and said they “do not have the intention of falling victim to the games of midnight coup-making by some amateur coup leaders.” And, they were no less courageous when they nominated a judge who ruled to release a naval colonel arrested on suspicion of drafting a plan to undermine the government only 19 hours after his arrest for the Guinness World Records, stressing that anyone who could read the heavy case material that quickly must be the “world’s fastest reader.” Observers specifically applaud this non-polarized and impartial style.

“They are making politics independent of ethnic, religious, political and gender identities. They are, in fact, not homogeneous with respect to any of those and merely a free and democratic sociopolitical order keeps them together. For instance, I see a headscarved girl carrying a banner criticizing Erdoğan, and I am not surprised at all,” said Professor Bekir Berat Özipek of İstanbul Commerce University, noting that they have rather a “conscience based” approach.

Creative sarcasm employed skillfully in good faith

Civil Society Development Center (STGM) Chairman Levent Korkut agreed on the Young Civilians’ politics-neutral approach, too. “This is a heterogeneous and non-polarized group containing many differences within it. They are certainly not acting as a proxy of a particular political ideology either,” said Korkut, who also teaches at Hacettepe University in Ankara.

Experts point out the group’s talent for using humor as a tool in their demonstrations. Media Association (Medya Derneği) Chairman Salih Memecan, also one of the most famous cartoonists in Turkey, said humor is vitally important while putting up a fight for freedoms, and he observed that the Young Civilians are highly successful in employing it. “I am even worried that I may lose my job if, one day, they also begin drawing cartoons,” he stated, in appreciation of the quality work the Young Civilians do.

Özipek’s assessment of the group focused on its talented use of humor, too, but also drew attention to another dimension — that they use it in good faith and in an inclusionary way, which is uncommon for Turkish humor. “Humor is a mode of resistance against authoritarianism for them, and they use it skillfully for a more democratic and libertarian Turkey, which is so noteworthy because the old language of Turkish humor had plenty of pro-establishment and statist elements in it. Those who are alienated by the official state discourse, be it ethnically or religiously, like pious people, Kurds, Alevis have all been subject to an exclusionary and critical treatment for so long. In the Young Civilians, I see all those estranged are rather embraced,” he said.

Creativity is seen as another strength of the group’s use of humor in demonstrations. Memecan, Özipek and Korkut have all expressed their appreciation for the group’s inventiveness. “It is certainly not the only NGO in Turkey, but creativity is what these youngsters have. Even those opposing the group cannot help but admire their inventiveness,” Özipek said. Having noted that Turkey is going through an enormous fight for democracy, Korkut lauded the Young Civilians’ creativity, which makes them highly productive, putting their shoulders to the wheel in the country’s struggle for the consolidation of democracy. “In Turkey, NGOs have a problem of being unable to produce and eventually create an effect. The Young Civilians here are certainly an example for others with their fertile imaginations and their influence,” he said.

Setting an example for civil society

Korkut detailed his reasons in labeling the Young Civilians as an example for other NGOs. “They are doing what civil society should actually do in Turkey, showing them how to use and develop their capacities. Reaching out to people and the media is something they do very successfully,” said the STGM chairman, adding that many NGOs in the country rather opt for taking funding mainly from the European Union for their projects but pay little attention to the effect they create. “The Young Civilians, however, are raising funds on their own and focusing on how to be more influential,” he concluded. Indeed, the group depends solely on modest donations and fees from its members.

Professor Fuat Keyman of Koç University also believes that the Young Civilians set an example for Turkish civil society. “They showed very well that an NGO could overcome financial and organizational weaknesses and be very influential once there is a will and endeavor and when these two are combined with creativity,” he noted.

04 April 2010/ Turkish Daily “Today’s Zaman”

By NICHOLAS BIRCH
ISTANBUL — Fifty-six alleged coup plotters, including two retired four-star generals, are set to go on trial Monday at a high-security prison in Turkey in a case that has exposed deep fissures over how to assure the future of Turkey’s secular democracy.

Dubbed “the trial of the century” in the Turkish media, it has split the country between those who see the case as the beginning of the end of decades of military meddling in politics, and those who believe the charges are trumped up by a government with Islamist roots that is determined to undermine Turkey’s secular guardians.

Many in the country, ranging from Muslim conservatives to secular-minded Turks, support the case as an important step in bolstering a civilian democracy.

The trial is expected to continue for months.

Prosecutors accuse the generals, the highest-ranking officers charged in Turkey’s 63-year history of multiparty democracy, of leading a conspiracy aimed at toppling the government of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, in power since 2002.

The lawyer for a key figure in the case, former military police chief Gen. Sener Eruygur, described the charges against her client as “malicious lies.”

Turkey’s military has toppled four governments since 1960, and was empowered to protect Turkey’s secular order in the current constitution, drafted by a military junta in 1982. But a decade of political changes aimed at bringing Turkey in line with European Union norms have weakened its grip on power.

Meanwhile, the military command itself has become divided about its proper role in Turkey’s changing political system: While some officers have become more authoritarian and anti-Western, others favor a moderate approach.

Analysts say the unprecedented arrest of dozens of active and retired soldiers in connection with the alleged conspiracy wouldn’t have been possible without the consent of the Turkish military’s current chief of staff, Gen. Ilker Basbug.

The investigation into the alleged group of plotters, dubbed Ergenekon after a legend concerning the Turks’ Central Asian origins, has polarized the country since it began in June 2007 with the police discovery of a weapons cache in an Istanbul suburban house belonging to a military petty-officer.

Many secularists say the investigation is a scheme sponsored by the government to discredit secular rivals, starting with the army. The government denies this.

Others see the arrests and prosecution as a test of the EU candidate country’s march toward a fully civilian democracy. The military denies links to Ergenekon.

In another twist last week, pro-government newspapers alleged that members of a board responsible for appointing magistrates were trying to stifle investigations by removing prosecutors in charge of the Ergenekon case. A spokesman for the board denied the allegations.

On Saturday, thousands of protestors marched in central Istanbul, chanting, “Keep your hands off our prosecutors.” A mixed crowd of Muslim conservatives and left-leaning Turks brandished placards that read, “No to military coups.”

“For years, soldiers have breathed down the necks of people in this country,” said Emel Caliskan, a 22-year old student. “But we are not children: if we like a party, we vote for it. If we get fed up with it, we vote it out.”

With friction between Turkish state institutions on the rise, even Turks who see the Ergenekon case as a crucial step toward a civilian democracy in Turkey fear it may do as much harm as good — essentially putting a political decision into the hands of the courts.

“The court case has projected social polarizations onto the judicial system, diminishing its already fragile reputation for independence,” said Umit Cizre, an academic who has written books on civilian-military relations. “There is nobody left to trust.”

The indictment made public in March charges the group with alleged provocations that included ordering grenade attacks on a secularist newspaper in May 2006 and the murder of a judge the same month.

The judge’s murder, blamed at first on Islamists, sparked outrage. At his funeral, AKP cabinet ministers narrowly escaped an angry crowd. Within months, millions of secular-minded Turks had taken to the streets to protest the government.

But in December 2008, Turkey’s High Court of Appeals ruled that the man another court had sentenced to life in prison for the killing should be retried as part of the Ergenekon conspiracy. According to the indictment, the murder had been a provocation dreamed up by members of Ergenekon to convince the public that Islam was a threat.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124804766303763789.html

I am sticking to three things: to my computer to write this article, to the TV to watch the May Day quasi-celebrations in İstanbul and, more importantly, to my phone in order to call my daughter Hazal every 10 minutes since, for the first time in her life, she is participating in the May Day celebrations in Ankara. Meanwhile, different thoughts are flowing through my mind.

Just now I called Hazal and asked her if she took her raincoat. She did not want to answer while her friends were around. I can understand that. These young people believe they are old enough to participate in the May Day celebrations. While talking to her I heard a famous May Day song coming from around her. For a while I mumbled it, too. Hazal laughed and did not hear my warning to be careful.
Meanwhile, when I saw the protest of other youths in İstanbul, “the Young Civilians,” on TV, I applauded them. They hung a very big poster from one of the rooms of The Marmara Hotel in Taksim Square. The poster read, “On May 1 shots were fired from here. Those responsible for this should be found.”

The young civilians were referring the events of May Day in 1977. While the crowd was celebrating May Day, unknown assailants opened fired on them. Thirty-four people were killed in the ensuing chaos. This provocation was one of the big steps taken on the road to the 1980 coup. The Ergenekon of that time was trying to prepare the ground for the coup by creating chaos in the country — and at that time they were successful.

After the bloody events of 1977 Taksim Square was closed to May Day celebrations. This is why celebrating May Day in Taksim Square, as Kerim Balcı noted on Thursday, is a matter of honor for the unions.

The unions have a point: Confronting the past may be painful, but it is absolutely necessary for establishing a better future. The security forces claimed that if the May Day celebrations were held in Taksim Square, they would invite provocations. But this claim does not sound logical. After the victories of Turkey’s national soccer games the people flow on the streets in the thousands there and the police are able to supply the necessary security. This country has hosted many world summits, including NATO summits, without any problems and, if they want, they can provide security on May Day, too.

Hazal just told me that they are dancing and I should stop calling.

Well, finally this year Parliament declared May Day an official holiday after 29 years of coups, which crush all kinds of rights, including workers’ rights. But, on the other hand, there is a long way to go; there are many things that should be done and some of the necessary steps go beyond declaring May Day an official holiday. For example, registering with or leaving a union requires a notary’s verification. Accordingly, a worker has to pay a notary to authenticate the registration form. The laws also put further restrictions on the functioning of the unions. A trade union has to have at least 10 percent of the workers in a sector as members in order to engage in bargaining at a sector level and, in addition, more than 50 percent of the workers at an individual company level in order to function at the enterprise level. The procedure for determining collective bargaining authority for public sector workers is too complex. There are many restrictions on strikes. A new bill that will address all these problems, hopefully in accordance with the standards of the European Union, is waiting in Parliament.

My parents were working and were able to enjoy these rights. I even remember them participating in the May Day celebrations, at least until the 1980 coup. But if they knew that I let Hazal participate in the celebrations, they would lash me for the next 100 years. Once when I was a student they tried to lock me in my room to stop me from going to the university on one May Day. Guess what happened. I escaped through the window. This is why Hazal has permission — although I know I will be in a panic until I hear that she is safe and back at home.

But, on the other hand, due to this huge, complex Ergenekon mentality aiming to keep this country in perpetual limbo, I was not able to enjoy some of the rights that my parents had, at least for a short period of time. An important period of my life passed under the rules and regulations that were put in place by the Ergenekon mentality. Now some members of my generation are struggling against it and fighting to get our democratic rights, at least in order to make sure that our children will not have the same troubles that we had to face. Well, I have to admit, I feel pity for my generation but, on the other hand, hope for the future, because Hazal and her generation deserve better and certainly the Young Civilians were giving us strength.

03 May 2009, Sunday

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080605/FOREIGN/555469358

Free speech spawns political satire

ISTANBUL // A group of young activists in Turkey has raised eyebrows, and perhaps a wry smile too, by coating its pro-democracy messages with political satire, going so far as to give ironic instructions on how to stage a coup and even poking fun at the military.

“We stand for a new generation,” said Turgay Ogur, 34, one of the leading members of Young Civilians.

“Humour offers relief, and it is a weapon without actually hurting someone.”

The group is made up of a core of about 20 people and a mailing list of some 2,000 that include academics, bankers and students, but also people with only basic education. “We even have a shepherd,” said Mr Ogur, a political scientist and newspaper columnist.

The organisation started life as a mailing group eight years ago and chose its name only in 2006. “Young Civilians” refers to an incident in 2003, when the press reported that a group of “young officers” within the army had voiced their frustration with the course the country was taking under the government of the Islamic Justice and Development Party, or AKP, of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister.

The reports about the unnamed “young officers” reminded Turks of the run-up to the first military coup in the country in 1960, when a group of young officers led the coup that toppled a previous religiously conservative government.

Adnan Menderes, the prime minister of the time, was hanged as a consequence of the coup.

“In Turkey, politics is a serious business,” Mr Ogur said. “Prime ministers have gone to the gallows here.”

Choosing a red gym shoe as its symbol – as an unspoken protest against army boots – the Young Civilians have received widespread attention with their often irreverent statements and demonstrations.

Mr Ogur was even invited to the Presidential Palace in Ankara by Abdullah Gul, the president, last year. He made headlines because he was wearing trainers and presented a pair to Mr Gul.

Poking fun at the powerful is healthy for the country’s development, said Murat Belge, an academic, commentator and pro-democracy activist. Mr Belge said that Turkey did not have a strong tradition of political satire, and so the very fact the Young Civilians were tolerated was “a sign Turkey is changing”.

When Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, the chief prosecutor, asked the constitutional court in March to ban the AKP for alleged Islamist tendencies, the Young Civilians issued their own tongue-in-cheek list of accusations against the party to expose Mr Yalcinkaya’s charges as ideologically motivated.

The Young Civilians’ list included allegations the AKP’s initials really stood for “Allah and Koran Party”, using the Turkish spelling of Quran. Also, it said, the AKP had started to implement its anti-alcohol policy in a hospital, with the head doctor pressed to ban a patient from drinking. The patient suffered from cirrhosis of the liver, it said.

After the court of appeals issued a statement recently in support of Mr Yalcinkaya, a decision that was criticised by some commentators as an effort to stage a “judicial coup”, the Young Civilians offered their own advice of how to write a better memorandum for a coup d’etat.

They told the judges, among other things, they should keep their text short; that it should “present made-up things as if they were real” and that they should publish it after the close of the stock exchange on a Friday in order not to rock the markets.

The term “memorandum” came into fashion when Turkey’s general staff issued a now-infamous “midnight memorandum” on its website in April last year, threatening a coup against Mr Erdogan’s government to prevent Mr Gul from becoming president.

The Young Civilians replied that the authors of the memorandum could not even write proper Turkish, but wrote in a style reminiscent of a child in primary school still learning to write.

“We do not have the intention to fall victim to the games of midnight coup-making by some amateur coup leaders,” they said at the time.

Mr Ogur said a group like his would not have been possible without democratic reforms under Turkey’s EU bid that widened free speech and other rights in recent years.

“We are very happy there are those ‘outside forces’,” he said, mocking a phrase that EU opponents in Turkey use to describe the Europeans. “We care about democracy. I am sure we are witnessing the beginning of a more democratic era.”

Mr Ogur said there has been no legal action against his group so far, but Turkey’s leaders have not yet learnt how to handle political satire.

Mr Erdogan sued a cartoonist of an opposition newspaper in 2004 for portraying him as a cat, and he went to court again when a satirical magazine, under the headline “Tayyip’s world” filled its cover page with drawings of Mr Erdogan as a duck, an elephant, a camel and other animals.

Mr Erdogan lost both cases, with the courts ruling that as a politician, he has to put up with that kind of criticism.

tseibert@thenational.ae

Turkey moving from oligarchy to absolute monarchy, says Oğur

Turgay Oğur, a representative from the Young Civilians — a Turkish NGO noted for its use of sarcasm in protests — says recent developments, including the ongoing closure case against the ruling party and last year’s “367 criterion,” introduced to the presidential election process with the result that the ballot in Parliament was made unusually difficult, show that Turkey currently has an oligarchic power structure.

“The Constitutional Court, as we have found out, has turned out to be a supervisory body over the Parliament,” Oğur says in an interview for Monday Talk. “If the court overturns the legislation on the freedom to wear the headscarf at universities and if it decides to close down the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), it will be proven that this is an absolute monarchy,” he says.

The Young Civilians, a group of “private citizens” from diverse backgrounds, states that it was established to demand change for more democracy. Rejecting the wearing of the “uniforms of anyone,” they started as a group of students and began holding protests in the early years of the new century.

Your organization came into the limelight with its criticism of the May 19 Youth and Sports Day celebrations. How did this happen?

We had a gathering at Parliament on May 19 in 2003. We have long desired to free the youth festivities from the way they are celebrated in stadiums where young people have not been treated as individuals, but as part of a planned organization. They have been seen as objects, not subjects. As we have been trying to give this message, newspapers wrote several stories about us. We did not even have a name at the time.

Then came a story in the Cumhuriyet daily about ‘young officers,’ right?

Yes, the newspaper wrote that the young officers were uncomfortable with a few things in the country, including our May 19 campaign. Later, in 2006, we wrote an unprecedented text about the Kurdish issue. We titled it “The Young Civilians are Uncomfortable” and it was highly debated, so whenever we were referred to later on, we were described as the group that wrote the text of “The Young Civilians are Uncomfortable.”

And you have a pair of sneakers in the logo, as opposed to the military boots of the young officers…

Yes, we found this symbol on an ad hoc basis. In the Cumhuriyet article I mentioned, they had military boots displayed next to the story. We thought of an object contrary to the military boots and close to the hearts of young civilians and found a pair of sneakers most appropriate as a symbol.

Your messages have been perceived as very political, yet also quite democratic. How do you get rid of your prejudice?

We listen to our consciences. Each of us has a background that shapes us to a degree, but we also have our consciences, which guide us. That brings us together.

Do you receive any negative reactions at the university — or outside — because of what you do and how you do it?

We have people coming from different backgrounds and we have a mixed profile. We have ordinary-looking people doing extraordinary or somewhat unexpected things. This is unusual for many people and they have difficulty labeling us.

For example?

When it comes to the headscarf issue, our most fervent supporter of headscarf freedom is a woman who describes herself as an agnostic. She surprised all of her instructors and students at the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ). So, because of this fact, people have a delayed reaction and we have many times proven that preliminary opinions were wrong.

Why would an agnostic defend headscarf freedom?

Actually, there is no need to do this, but it is a requirement of taking a democratic stand in Turkey. The headscarf is an issue of basic freedoms. I cannot say, “You’re going to be against me if I don’t look like you tomorrow, so I should oppose your headscarf today.” I should not say that because, if you do such a thing tomorrow, I can deal with it then. I cannot side with those who want to restrict the freedom to wear a headscarf because I think it would not be ethical. This would be like a father who beats up his daughter “pre-emptively” so that she will not do anything “wrong” or anything he doesn’t approve of. This is a pathological approach.

You are a relatively small group, but your activities make it to the media easily. How do you manage to get organized so easily and project your messages?

We mainly communicate through e-mail. We use lots of humor. We follow daily developments in the country. When the talk in the country was about higher education entrance exams (the Student Selection Exam, ÖSS) one week, there was no use in going to the seaside to protest pollution. At the time, we prepared ironic test questions to help the distressed students get through trying to pass the exam.

Do you have ambitions to become a bigger organization or do you plan to be involved in politics in a party format in the future?

We don’t think spreading out with lots of branches is a good use of our time. We focus on production and on our activism. We have events organized by different members of the group. We have an anarchist makeup. One of our members has organized a visit to İstanbul by Italian Prosecutor Felice Casson [who discovered the existence of Operation Gladio, a NATO stay-behind paramilitary force left over from the Cold War] and another member organized a workshop about Kurdish culture called “Let’s be Kurdish.”

When is Felice Casson coming?

He will be speaking at [İstanbul] Bilgi University on April 26.

And could you be Kurdish?

We have realized that we don’t know as much about Kurdish culture as we know about, say, Japanese culture, even though Kurds have been quite Turkish in that sense. We wanted to learn about their cooking, their language and their songs. We memorized Kurdish songs and we cooked Kurdish dinners. Basically, we wanted to end our ignorance about Kurdish ways. At the end of the workshop, we will go to Diyarbakır on May 3 and try to address people in the Kurdish language. Unfortunately, lots of bridges have been burnt between Kurds and Turks in Turkey. Ours is an effort to walk on a small wooden passage. But, small or big, much needs to be done in that regard.

How have you reacted to the closure case against the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP)?

Very strongly. We applied for permission to read our message to the DTP group in Parliament, but at the time visitors were not being accepted to Parliament.

A recent event at Akdeniz University has been making headlines. Do you think the man who was allegedly involved in a shooting spree at the campus was an agent provocateur?

These types of provocations have been tried several times before. Universities are appropriate for these activities because young people can get energized and get organized pretty quickly. In the past such incidents grew out of proportion and led to polarization, big clashes and, eventually, military coups. But we don’t want to watch the same film over and over again. Look at the actor they used. He is like a comic figure. He is like a Swiss Army knife. There is something for everybody in him. He has an Islamic beard; he has a symbol on his forehead that Alevis use; he is linked to ultra-nationalists; he is also like a bodyguard. This is all related to how authoritarian the higher education institutions are in Turkey and how the country’s youth has been perceived.

You see universities as lumber manufacturing plants, if I’m not mistaken?

Universities are lumber factories. This is the role the regime finds appropriate for them. You put different sizes of logs onto the chopping table and cut the standard sizes needed according to the demands of the country. This type of uniform production creates a human model that follows orders — it does not matter whether it’s coming from right or left or center — without thinking, and this human is ready to fight when called to duty. There is no creativity, no pluralism and no freedom of thought at universities. The pictures we have seen at Akdeniz University campus are not absurd under these circumstances. And it happens in Antalya, which has a governor who allegedly has relations with deep-state figures.

So it is not by accident that student clashes happen in Antalya…

Yes, plus the president of the university [Mustafa Akaydın] has been elected to head the Inter-university Board [ÜAK], which is a body that supports the status quo. He has been known for his fervent opposition to headscarf-wearing students at universities. Akdeniz University has a modern campus and lots of security. How armed students could enter the campus is quite questionable. Apparently, somebody turned his head and looked the other way.

A few days after Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya of the Supreme Court of Appeals asked Turkey’s highest court to shut down the AK Party over its alleged anti-secularism, your group filed a complaint against him with the Supreme Court of Appeals. Do you expect to obtain results from this complaint?

In the Şemdinli case, because there was a mention of the top general’s name in the indictment, the prosecutor was disbarred. The reason shown for his punishment was a supposed technical error he had made in the indictment. According to the Constitution, the president cannot be accused of any crime except treason. Yalçınkaya in his indictment went against the Constitution and wanted the president banned from politics [along with some senior party members and the prime minister]. Ours was a symbolic appeal against this. I don’t think we will get any results out of it because we cannot speak of the rule of law in Turkey.

How do you think law is practiced in Turkey?

In Turkey, law has been seen as a safety valve to protect the status quo. But law relates to the rights of individuals. The powerful side is the state, so it is the individual who needs protection for his rights. In the Turkish system the focus is on the protection of the state. We saw [coup general and former President] Kenan Evren confessing this.

Do you refer to his words in promoting the 1982 constitution?

When he was promoting the ‘82 constitution, he said the 1961 constitution made individuals powerful, so it was time to make the state powerful again. This is laughable. How can an individual be more powerful than the state? All powers, including the military and the judiciary, are in the domain of the state.

Turgay Oğur
As a response to my request for a brief biography, he described himself as follows: I am an average citizen of the Turkish Republic who was born at a hospital in this country; who went to schools in this country; who loves this country neither more nor less than anyone else; who does not wear anybody’s uniform; who has no connection with violence; who hates clichés; and who would like to have a long and healthy life. I studied political science at the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ). I have worked at Parliament, the Prime Ministry and Sabancı University.I am involved in politics not to save the world, but because what happens around me bothers me and my lifestyle. You see, being involved with Young Civilians is an existential need for me. Aside being involved in nongovernmental activities, I write regularly for a few publications assuming fictional identities. I cook well.

TurkeyThe group is one of several starting to openly question the hierarchy in Turkey, which, as the Young Civilians see it, goes something like this: The secular state elite and the military, which have steered the state since its beginning, are on the top. Elected officials deposed every decade or so by military coups are on the bottom.

The Young Civilians want that to change. Wit is their principal weapon.

When Turkey’s political class was in a battle this spring over who should become president, the Young Civilians came up with their own “candidate” — a pastiche of every quality the secular old guard detests most. Named Aliye Ozturk, she was supposed to be a Kurdish, Armenian, Allewite woman who wears a head scarf and takes a keen interest in classical Turkish string instruments. (Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic, preferred Western music.)

“I will be a modern, civilized president who communicates with all segments of the society,” Aliye Ozturk says in the nomination statement the Young Civilians posted on the Internet athttp://www.aliyeozturk.com “I will not think that I am a feudal lord just because I live at the palacelike residence.”

The Young Civilians began as a group of students, and held one of their earliest protests in 2003, when they took aim at the annual May 19 Youth and Sports Day, which features schoolchildren marching in sport stadiums around the country. The ceremonies are far too stiff, too Soviet and, frankly, too dull, they say, and they held a small press conference proposing to “rescue the festival from the stadiums.”

“It’s a kind of Stalin festival, a dogmatic thing,” said Ilhan Dogus, a rail-thin finance major at Bilgi University whose sense of humor is behind some recent protests.

It was the small protest in 2003 that brought the Young Civilians their name and their notoriety. An article in Cumhuriyet, a pro-establishment daily, cited the students’ protest in an article titled “Young Officers Are Concerned,” said Nezir Akyesilman, a member. The group responded sarcastically, in a statement posted on the Internet, saying that “the young civilians” were also concerned.

The Young Civilians are a diverse group, both religious and secular with a variety of political affiliations, who are drawn together by their passionate belief in democracy. In a written statement this month they exhorted the leaders of all the political parties to abide by the results of Sunday’s parliamentary elections, in which both independents and nationalists are expected to do well. But aside from serious work, they also indulge in comic asides. They won admirers by rewriting Turkey’s much-despised college entrance exam as a democracy quiz.

“Which of the below would elevate Turkey’s status to a contemporary civilization?” one question asks.

“(A) Listening to classical music. (B) Waving flags at Republic rallies. (C) Dancing ballet. (D) Standing against military coups and warnings. (E) Holding a slogan that reads, ‘Turkey is secular and will remain so.’ ”

Turkish society has undergone sweeping changes in recent decades. Large-scale migrations from rural areas to the cities starting in the 1980s have led to a rising religious middle class, whose representatives are now fighting with the state elite for power.

In addition, Turkey has made major changes to some of its crucial institutions to qualify for European Union membership, removing much of the military’s influence from government and rewriting criminal and civil codes, encouraging more openness in society.

“People are trying to rethink their identity,” Mr. Dogus said. “The one the state gave us is being deconstructed.”

It is a little like lifting the cover of a long-closed book.

For most of Turkey’s history, there was little room for society to question the official model of a Turkish citizen — a Muslim with no ethnic identity or strong political opinion. The education system reinforced that prototype.

Now history is being rethought in new books. Documentaries are exploring Turkey’s past military coups. There has even been a conference that touched on the genocide of Armenians during World War I, a topic that has been fiercely taboo in Turkish society.

But coming to terms with the past is painful, and some Turks, bewildered by the changes sweeping the country, are retreating along the well-worn path of nationalism. While the European Union reforms have pulled Turkey toward the West, the rejection of Turkey by Europeans, as well as campaigns by nationalist politicians in Turkey, threaten to close the country back up.

“Breaking this link with the West, this would be very dangerous for us,” said Nil Mutlver, a Young Civilian.

What is really at issue is trust, argued Mehmet Sobasi, one of the group’s founding members. For generations, the state elite held itself above the traditional, rural peasant class of the countryside, imposing coups occasionally to keep Turkey on track. Now, Mr. Sobasi contends, Turkey needs to let go of that crutch to become a truly modern democracy.

“It’s the stage we’ll arrive to first,” Mr. Sobasi said, sitting in an office in central Istanbul. “Without getting there, we can’t discuss anything.”

The state does not want to face the problems that groups like Young Civilians are bringing up, Ms. Mutlver said.

By the state’s thinking, she said, “we all like Armenian food, so you see, we all live together quite happily.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/world/europe/22turkey.html