Ergenekon murders in Cyprus linked to highest level in current Turkish Military

At a time when Turkey continues to pursue its secessionist policy in Cyprus, while its PR machine spins a story that it is allegedly supportive of renewed efforts to resolve the long-standing Cyprus problem, a remarkable story has emerged from a very brave man in the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus.

An article on 4th September 2008, by Erol ÖNDEROĞLU in Turkey's online Bianet.org, says:

"Criticizing the permission granted to Garrison Commander Gen. Galip Mendi to visit the imprisoned Ergenekon generals Hurşit Tolon and Şener Eruygur, Hüseyin Yalyalı, a member of the board of directors of the Press Laborers Union of Turkish Cypriots, has demanded that permission should be given for the investigation of his role in the murder of Kutlu Adalı."

"Kocaeli garrison commander three-star general Mendi had visited both of the generals in the Kandıra prison on behalf of the General Staff.

"Yalyalı reminded that Mendi’s name had appeared in Adalı’s murder in Northern Cyprus on July 6,1996 and since the murder was not investigated [by Turkey], the European Human Rights Court (AİHM) had convicted Turkey."


A charge that a current representative of Turkey's General Staff was actually a henchman for Ergenekon and its activities in Cyprus surely deserves wide coverage by an 'International Press' which is strangely reluctant to engage in truly investigative reporting of such issues regarding Turkey.

At a time when Demetris Christofias, elected President of Cyprus as a progressive politician on a ticket which specifically sets out to break the Cyprus deadlock through renewed intercommunal talks is actively pursuing negotiations, will the newly appointed UN special representative Alexander Downer raise questions on such issues during his talks today in Ankara with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan and Turkish President Gul?

While the United Nations, United States and Britain now fall all over themselves to appoint 'special representatives' to assist the Cypriots find a solution to their problems, can this process stand any chance of success when the problem itself has been reduced from being an issue of brutal invasion and of the continuing occupation of the sovereign territory of a tiny country by a former regional empire, and is presented instead as a problem between the two communities on Cyprus which they can resolve through intercommunal dialogue?

How many of the international press articles written analysing the problems of Cyprus ever present the story how that 'problem' has been massaged through many years of foreign interference into now being defined as a problem between two communities on the island?

How many of the international press reports on the Cyprus problem clarify how Turkey's role has been reduced from being that of an invading aggressor who has imported hundreds of thousands of its settlers whom it seeks to allow to vote in any referendum on the future of the island, into one of simply whether it 'recognises' the Government of Cyprus and allows Cyprus ships and aircraft to use its territory ?

Will any PHD students in the field of International Politics of Reconciliation choose to investigate what stories there have been in the 60 years of international media coverage about the Cyprus problem which investigate or describe Turkey's policies from the September 1956 events in Istanbul up to current Turkish policy, which many would argue has been solely aimed at destroying the 'reluctant' Republic in Cyprus? Will there be any studies of how Turkish agents on the island have been instrumental in deliberately creating incidents leading to the creation of its own vassal state? What happened to 'self-determination'?

Many will have noted, but few have commented, about Turkey's threats of violence in Cyprus and other abuses of the Republic's sovereignty during the process of the island's bid to join the EU. Having failed to blackmail the EU into not accepting Cyprus' entry, it belatedly jumped onto the bandwagon of trying to influence the island's EU accession in order to safeguard its own interests and promote it's own accession.

Turkey sought to, and succeeded at adversely influencing the content of the UN's Annan Plan in order to maximise the role of the statelet it had created in 'northern' Cyprus, to the extent that the majority population on the island voted against the plan. Through those means, and its blatant propaganda after the Annan Plan was rejected, it still insists the Greek Cypriots (or failing them, then at least the rest of the world) should accept 'the realities' it created in Cyprus.

How much international analysis has there been about how 'the solution' which the Erdogan Government ever-so-generously accepted for Cyprus (and which Britain's Lord Hannay, and the then-enlargement-Commission Verheugen, the United Nations and European Union officials tried very hard to enforce on Cypriots prior to that reluctant republic's entry into the EU in 2004) was one which was actually designed to forever bury the Republic of Cyprus and to replace it with a virgin birth Federation created in part by, and thus legalising the TRNC 'realities' in Cyprus?

Turkey should put its money where its mouth is and lead the world by embarking on a process of creating an autonomous and maybe even Federated State of Kurdistan in solving it's own internal problems and perhaps adopt the same policy in resolving its long-standing territorial disputes with Armenia. In addition to resolving its own conflicts that would do the rest of the world a favour by helping defuse 'terrorism' in that area through the creation of a model suitable for that region, as well as showing a way forward in solving other ethnic conflicts in its neighbouring countries.

The European Union, its leaders, parliamentarians, and journalists, should understand the type of inverse logic which Turkey has practiced for decades in Cyprus and reverse it back on Turkey by monitoring its own progress towards fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria by assessing steps taken within Turkey itself to create at least autonomy if not a Federated Kurdish State. Until measurable and sustained progress has been achieved within Turkey on those indicators, all negotiations for Turkey's EU accession should be frozen.

Turkey should be expected to return Varosha in Cyprus to its lawful inhabitants immediately, in accordance with past agreements, and then to withdraw the vast majority of its army of occupation as a sign of its goodwill towards settling this long standing Gordian knot, so that negotiations between Cypriots can then actually stand some chance of making progress.

The carrot of EU accession for Turkey has been held out for long enough, despite opposition to the principle of that country's joining the EU in the population of many countries, so perhaps it is more appropriate for its leaders to be guided by the democratic views of their populations and be emboldened to now use the stick on Turkey rather than just dangling a carrot !

Such issues should be included in the November report being prepared by the EU on Turkey's accession process, so that the pressure on finding a Cyprus solution that suits Turkey's interests to join the EU can be eased, and so that the Cypriots' interests in finding a solution to their own problem can be provided with the breathing space it needs in order to stand some chance of success.

While a belligerent United States talks up a climate of renewed 'cold war' over Russia's behaviour in 'sovereign' Georgia, and the European Union supports such false rhetoric, does anyone stop to ask why Turkey has been allowed to hold on to the 'sovereign territory' of Cyprus for so long, and yet have its accession process commence and also continue?

Will the 'international community' choose to continue to appease Turkey over Cyprus, or will it choose to recognise the Ergenekon wolf in sheep's clothing, and call a spade a spade before it is too late?

Unless that happens, many of the ever-dwindling population of actual Cypriots of Turkish heritage (as distinct from the settlers brought in by the invading country after the invasion in 1974 to alter the demographic structure of the island, who now outnumber the Turkish Cypriots) as well as the majority Greek Cypriots will regard the current talks as a next chapter in the continuing 'charade' of foreign interests, and many will probably choose not to vote in favour of the next 'foreign inspired' plan for a Federation on that tiny island!

View the "ERGENEKON FILE" at Zaman Online