BY GUNERI CIVAOGLU
MILLIYET- Yesterday saw the detention by security forces of Kemalist Thought Association (ADD) head and retired Gen. Sener Eruygur and retired Gen. Hursit Tolon, former commander of the First Army and Mediterranean Army. Nothing like this has been seen in Turkey for 48 years.
Under a civilian government, it's quite astonishing . An unwritten immunity has seemingly been lifted.
Of course, everyone should be equal before the law. We can also discuss immunity without a legal basis.
But keeping people in jail without even knowing their alleged crime for a year-and-a-half as part of a probe called Ergenekon, with still no indictments, is contrary to human rights and the principles of justice.
Secular Cumhuriyet daily's Ankara representative Mustafa Balbay, Tercuman daily Editor in Chief Ufuk Buyukcelebi and Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO) head Sinan Aygun were also taken by police. It's unbelievable. Aygun's telling reporters 'My crime is to love Ataturk' is burned in our memories.
There are many other detentions. Some of them have yet to be announced.
In the 1940s, 'nationalists' were hunted. Then, in 1950, 'a communist witch hunt' was staged. A number of intellectuals were then picked up and sent to prison.
Now the Ergenekon wave is swelling.
If opposition to democracy and Kemalism are put in the same basket, this 'border violation' becomes very dangerous.
On the same day Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya presented to the Constitutional Court his oral argument to dissolve the ruling party, two former top commanders being taken into custody and their houses in a military compound being searched have turned things upside down.
Do these detentions send a message? Like: 'If the Constitutional Court rules under military pressure, then imagine the days to come. In the future, when they retire, other currently serving generals could hear a knock on their door.'
Maybe I'm wrong, but if I had four stars on my shoulder, I would certainly think about it.
What about the detentions of two journalists and the ATO head.?
Is this a warning to certain media members and non-governmental organizations which oppose or may oppose the government, telling them not to play with fire?
The exclusion of the Istanbul republican chief prosecutor from the developments raises question marks.
The case file on Ergenekon should be released soon.
If these detentions had not exploded like fireworks, Chief Prosecutor Yalcinkaya's arguments before the Constitutional Court would be all over headlines and TV screens.
Turkey and the world will now talk about these detentions.
The international public will get the impression that a planned coup was exposed while the ruling party's closure case was being considered.
The news that two generals were alleged to be in charge of the action will explode like a bomb.
Last week's meeting between Land Forces Commander Gen. Ilker Basbug and Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the premier's residence is getting more attention now.
Did Erdogan ask Basbug to greenlight the detention of the two ex-generals?