Why Does Turkey Always Arrest So Many People at the Same Time?

To make a statement.

BY JOSHUA E. KEATING | OCTOBER 21, 2010

This week in the eastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, 151 Kurdish activists, including 12 mayors of local towns, were put on trial for ties to the militant Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). In addition to the crime of belonging to the group, the activists are also accused of holding illegal demonstrations and distributing anti-government propaganda. According to reports, a special courtroom had to be built in Diyarbakir because of the number of defendants.

But trials of this size are hardly unprecedented in Turkey. Indeed, they're becoming the norm. Eighty-six alleged PKK members were arrested in a nationwide crackdown this February. One-hundred-twenty suspected al Qaeda members were arrested in January. More than 100 people were arrested in connection with an alleged coup plot in January 2009. And Eighty-six were arrested for ties to the rumored "Ergenekon" coup conspiracy in 2008. In a less politically fraught move, 46 people were arrested following an investigation into soccer match-fixing this year. Why does Turkey always arrest so many people at once?

It's probably not because Turkey has more massive criminal conspiracies per capita than anywhere else. Other countries manage to break up terrorist plots without resorting to mass arrests -- it was the Buffalo Six not the Buffalo 86, for instance. More likely, Ankarauses the public spectacle of mass arrests to send a message. Under Turkish law, an individual can be charged for simply belonging to a banned organization, even if he or she hasn't actually participated in any illegal activities. Because groups like the PKK don't exactly keep membership rolls, Turkish authorities have pretty wide leeway to crack down on anyone they deem to be subversive. Many of those arrested in this week's roundup may not actually be PKK members, but by lumping them in with the actual militants, the government could be sending a signal that it won't tolerate overt Kurdish nationalism.

In the case of the shadowy ultranationalist organization Ergenekon, many doubt that it actually exists at all and believe the Turkish government is using it as a pretext to attack hard-line secularists in the military.

Despite its mass arrests, Turkey has a relatively low conviction rate -- around 50 percent. Out of the original 86 Ergenekon arrests, only 48 are still on trial. But because Turkish law allows suspects to be held in prison during their trial, the arrest and trial itself can often be punishment enough -- and a powerful deterrent for those who might think of instigating their own plots.

It's not clear whether the mass-arrest strategy is working to quiet unrest -- in the Kurdish case, discontent seems to be growing. But it's certainly a logistical nightmare. In addition to the special courtrooms and prisons that have had to be built for Turkey's conspiracy trials, the paperwork alone can be crippling. The Ergenekon indictment was 2,455 pages long and took more than 280 hours to read aloud in court.

Thanks to Gareth Jenkins, Istanbul-based journalist and senior fellow at the Silk Road Studies Program.

 SUBJECTS:
 

Joshua E. Keating is an associate editor at Foreign Policy.

KURDISTAN

10:55 PM ET

October 21, 2010

target is freedom

Everybody should understand that Kurds will never give up in the way of freedom. We know this way goes up and down, but we are commited to be free and it is what it is.

 

EATBEES

11:43 AM ET

October 22, 2010

Misleading

You make it sound like Turkey just likes rounding up groups of "usual suspects" to make a show of repression in the authoritarian style. And you particularly make light of Ergenekon, saying, "...many doubt that it actually exists at all and believe the Turkish government is using as a pretext...."

Unfortunately, the article you link to in support of this claim, which I bothered to read, doesn't say what you imply it says. There is no doubt in the article that a "deep state" exists, and has existed since the 1950s. Nor is there any doubt that the people arrested as Ergenekon members were capable of violence, and may even have put their plans into action at times. It simply states that over time, control by the "deep state" of its subsidiaries has become frayed, so many of these operatives and "wannabes" may now be acting on their own, more like local mafias than a single coordinated conspiracy. However, as the article clearly states:

"The problem is that, even if it is not as active as it was in the early 1990s, the deep state really does exist in Turkey. Moreover, some of those recently arrested in Istanbul were connected with the deep state in the 1990s and there have been times when groups associated with the deep state have engaged in violence."

How does this jibe with your claim that "many doubt that it actually exists at all"? I seem to remember reading in the Turkish press (Today's Zaman) that real caches of weapons and real documents and audio tapes have been found and exposed, demonstrating both the capacity and willlingness of real actors (shadowy before, but now with names and faces) to engage in destabilizing acts. Of course all this remains to be proven in a court of law, but just wishing it away as a doubtful rumor doesn't fit with what we already know.

 

AR

1:54 PM ET

October 22, 2010

'Why does turkey always

'Why does turkey always arrest so many people at the same time?'

Because turkey is an authoritarian country.

 

CASSANDRAAA

4:04 PM ET

October 23, 2010

It's ironic that the Kurds,

It's ironic that the Kurds, now persecuted as a minority, were a major killing agents used by the Turkish government during the Armenian Genocide.

 

ALICE_HOWTOWN

1:07 AM ET

November 19, 2010

Misleading

Istanbul were connected gazeteler with the deep state in the 1990s and there have been times when groups associated with the deep tatil state have engaged in violence. Moreover, some klip izle of those recently arrested in Istanbul were connected with the deep state in the 1990s and there have been times when groups moliva associated with the deep state have engaged in violence.