The Sublime Portal

has been weaning the country's regular police forces away from the military.

This process has led to some remarkable and very positive changes. Parts of the civil service began to understand that their primary job was not to feather their own nests, but to provide services to ordinary people; and that an efficient Turkish state enhances its international influence and standing.

But the slow birth of a new Turkey has not been a painless process, nor has the outcome ever been predictable. It has been accompanied by a titanic political struggle in which shifting alliances between opaque forces can prove deadly for anybody who, willingly or unwittingly, comes between them.

The main theatre of war between these forces was opened officially in 2007 with the launch of the so-called Ergenekon investigation. Ergenekon, which refers to an epic legend of ancient Turkic lore, was more recently the name of an alleged Deep State conspiracy, which saw leading military, intelligence and political figures collaborate with organised crime, journalists, lawyers and other professionals. Their supposed aim was to restrict the influence of democratically elected governments, in particular the AK Party. But according to prosecutors and pro-government media, the plot went further – the Ergenekon members were planning a military coup in 2009 to restore the power of the Deep State over the elected government.

Since 2007 police have made hundreds of arrests of senior military and intelligence figures in what are called the Ergenekon 'waves'. But along with these, they have picked up dozens of journalists and lawyers whom they accuse of working with Ergenekon for pecuniary or ideo- logical advantage. The small but articulate class of liberal intellectuals and the larger middle class have warned that the democratic govern- ment is resorting to the sort of intimidation usually associated with the Deep State. In a sign of the times, the Ergenekon indictment relies heavily on digital evidence – mobile-phone taps, instant messaging and computer files, demonstrating the growing cyber abilities of the domestic intelligence services.

Bilal Şen had no role to play in any of this, except that his dili- gence, commitment and youthful energy appeared to align him with the new Turkey rather than the old. Yet, like most Turks, he was keenly aware of the sensitive political context within which he and