21 05 2009 - Lagendijk: Olli Rehn supports Ergenekon case

Today's Zaman , Turkey - May 16 2009
European Union Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn supports the ongoing investigation into the shady Ergenekon network, Dutch parliamentarian
Joost Lagendijk said.

The European Union's Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn supports the ongoing investigation into Ergenekon, a shady underground network accused of plotting to overthrow the government, a member of the European Parliament has said.


In an interview with private S Haber television, Dutch parliamentarian Joost Lagendijk said he knew from his conversations with Rehn that the commissioner was happy that the investigation was taking place although he was also cautious because he did not want to be blamed for possible procedural mistakes made in the course of the investigation.
Former generals, senior military officials, bureaucrats and academics are facing trial for being members of the ultranationalist Ergenekon network, which prosecutors say has plotted against the democratically elected government, tried to pave the way for a military coup and masterminded a number of political murders. The European Parliament has strongly called on Turkey to unearth all links of Ergenekon with the state but the EuropeanCommission, the executive arm of the European Union, has proved to be more cautious.
`Even Turks are getting confused with the second indictment, another few-thousand-page document. So it is difficult to follow and it explains the caution,' Lagendijk said in the interview. `Don't have any misunderstanding. The commissioner, as far as I talked to him, is supportive of the investigation, but they want to see concrete results. I think this will change the mood in the commission as well.'

Lagendijk said of himself that he is very happy with the investigation, insisting there should be no procedural mistakes in the process that would make the whole probe prone to criticism. `Olli Rehn is a good friend of mine and I discussed this with him on several occasions. I think that he is also happy that this is taking place, but he is also worried that things may go wrong, or say, not completely according to rules,' he said. `So I think he does not want to be blamed, they [the commission] don't want to be blamed for mistakes being made in the process. I think their stance has been `please do it, but do it within limits of the rule of law.''

Lagendijk, a long-time co-chairman of the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission, also criticized his colleagues and lawmakers in national parliaments for passing resolutions on Armenian claims of genocide at the hands of the late Ottoman Empire, saying they do so without sufficient historical information.

Lagendijk, who is not a candidate in the upcoming elections for the European Parliament, has been criticized by the Armenian lobby groups for not using the word genocide to describe what happened in 1915 in the Ottoman Empire. `I am a historian and I dare to say that I read quite a lot from the Turkish side, the Armenian side or independent British and American historians. I have said it on many occasions and I repeat it here: I don't know what happened in 1915,' Lagendijk said. `I am sure it was a catastrophe. Was it intentional? Was it planned? These are issues that for me are not settled yet.'

The Dutch parliamentarian, who is settling in Ä°stanbul after quitting politics, also said his colleagues in the European Parliament were pushing to include references to the genocide claims on documents about Turkey without sufficient nformation. `I can guarantee you, in the European Parliament, none of my colleagues or maybe five of my colleagues out of 785 know what happened,' he said. `The rest does not know. They are being lobbied, they say, `Oh, we read it; it was a very bad thing so let's put it into a resolution.' This is a bad thing to do for the European Parliament and bad thing to do for the national parliaments. Politicians should leave history to historians.'

16 May 2009, Saturday

Euro Arm Fed.