Former top Gülenist is a witness in Cumhuriyet case

Hüseyin Gülerce is a witness of the case against journalists working for the daily Cumhuriyet.

Gülerce is also the “informer-witness” who led to the arrest of the journalists of daily Sözcü and an arrest warrant against the newspaper’s owner.

He was an important member of the Gülenist gang until the Dec. 17-25, 2013, probes targeting the government.

He worked as an editor-in-chief and columnist at daily Zaman, the gang’s official publication.

He was the chairman of the board of trustees at the founding of the Journalists and Writers Foundation, which was supposed to be the “official face” of the same gang, and remained in that position for years.

At the times the Gülenist gang and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) were hand in hand, one would follow Gülerce to find out the position of the Gülenists in particular issues.

When the Dec.17-25 bribery and graft scandal was made public, Gülerce took a stance alongside the AKP, put a distance between himself and the Gülenists, and now he is an expert on who is a Gülenist and who is not!

First of all, let’s not forget this: This individual was at the center of everything when the Gülenist gang was in illegal efforts to get organized within the state.

Is it any way possible that he was not aware of the plots against the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK)?

Is it possible that he did not know which Gülenist gang member would be promoted with this plot, how the armed forces would be invaded by the gang?

He should have first-hand knowledge of the real purposes of the cases such as Ergenekon and Balyoz (Sledgehammer), military espionage and Odatv.

And he has not been put on trial for these crimes.

No prosecutor has said: “Come here, you used to be a top executive of this crime organization. You did not give information to help bring down the gang to benefit from the repentance law, sit down and tell us about it.”

They could not because the Dec. 17-25 probes were the AKP’s Achilles tendon, by siding with the AKP at the time, Gülerce received some kind of immunity.

I just want to ask the prosecutors this: For example, if a Mafia member gives up being one, does that condone his crimes?

Now let’s think about it: This individual has not given a repentance testimony. 

If he had, could it have been possible to unravel the size of organization within the TSK? Yes, it could have.

If he had said in his testimony that Adil Öksüz was one of the top imams dealing with the Gülenist soldiers, could it have been possible for the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) to more efficiently follow Öksüz’s dealings? Yes, it could have.

If MİT had followed Öksüz’s activities, could the plans for a military coup attempt have been revealed much earlier? Yes, they could have.

So, why did this man not reveal the real face of the Gülenist gang - although he had known it very well - but is now the informer-witness in the cases that try to portray daily Cumhuriyet and daily Sözcü as members of the Gülenist gang?

Doesn’t this whole situation smell fishy?

Who abroad benefits the most from the fact that cases against journalists are built on such made-up information and made-up evidence?

Mr. Prosecutors, are you aware of what you are doing, what you are being used as a tool for?