On Nov. 28, Mehmet Baransu of Taraf published a copy of an August 2004 National Security Council (NSC) advisory ruling urging the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to finish off the prestigious Fethullah Gulen religious movement, and curb its activities both in Turkey and abroad. Since the publication of this document, it has become obvious that the repercussions differ from the experience of the Ergenekon trial process. 

I reported for Al-Monitor on Dec. 2 the details of the leaked document and pointed out that it was none other than Baransu who, in January 2010, broke the news that played a pivotal role in ending the military’s tutelage over civilian politics. This news sent 237 current and retired military personnel to prison on charges of engaging in terrorist activities with the aim of overthrowing the Erdogan government in 2002 and 2003 (the coup never took place). An unidentified person had delivered a suitcase full of secret documents to Baransu back then, just as an unidentified person recently delivered a suitcase full of secret documents with the 2004 NSC document.

The government is more sensitive today than it was back then about the leak of classified documents. This time, however, the prime minister’s office, the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and the NSC all filed on Dec. 4 criminal complaints under the anti-terror law against Taraf and Baransu. The prosecutor is asking up to 30 years in prison for Baransu.

Nese Duzel, executive editor of Taraf, wrote a Dec. 6 editorial addressing the issue. “It is only the municipal marching band and the fire department that are missing in the ... criminal case filing against us,” she wrote. “[The government] demands the courts with special authority silence us and throw us in jail. It must be a scary feeling to hide the real truth from the people, isn’t it? You are so scared that the truth will come out.”