Red Book And The Leviathan

Thomas Hobbes published his book “Leviathan” in 1651. Its name was derived from the biblical Leviathan, a sea monster, a dragon ready to eat and destroy everything.
The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contact theory. In his work, Hobbes symbolizes the state with a sea dragon. It is the protector of all human beings in the beginning, the protector of rights and liberties, but when it grows up, it turns into an evil monster living in the kingdom of darkness, a tyranny that suppressed humans and rights.
Recently, a judge referred to a political document called the National Security Strategy Paper (MGSB), often referred to as the “Red Book,” as justification for the arrest of police chiefs allegedly acting within the so-called “parallel state structure.” The Red Book describes threats to the state but has no legal status. It is alleged that this parallel structure was defined as a threat in the Red Book and that addition was subject to criticism from opposition and human rights groups. The Red Book was often abused by government and military authorities previously in their witch hunts of opponents.
As far as I understand, the system works like this: All ministries related to state security make their assessments of security and send those drafts to the National Security Council (MGK). The MGK compiles these drafts and produces a final draft. This draft is then brought to the agenda of the MGK to be discussed and approved by both the civilian and military sides of the council, led by the president. After the approval, they send it to the Council of Ministers to be approved as the "National Defense Strategy." No matter what Parliament is elected or which political party comes to power, they have to obey this document. No code, bylaw or regulation passed by Parliament can be contrary to this document. The interesting thing is that Parliament is not able to see or discuss this document. It works as a shadow constitution -- in fact, a real parallel one.
During the Feb. 28, 1997 postmodern coup era, some parts of the Red Book were leaked and the public in Turkey learned that “separatism and religious reactionaryism” were the basic threat elements in Turkey. Turkish nationalism that turned to racism was counted as another threat and a determination was also made about extreme leftism, which has softened in recent years. Now, according to media outlets, it was updated again last week to include the “parallel structure.”
Neither the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) nor the Code on Criminal Procedure (CMK) contain references to the Red Book, and it is unconstitutional to accuse and defame people by using non-legal, political documents such as the Red Book for that purpose. Our Leviathan in Turkey has long since grown up and its appetite is too big for it. We do not know what the consequences will be, but it is not very hard to see that another step backwards has been taken from the rule of law. As our “impartial and independent” judges have started to use and refer to the Red Book as a justification for arrests, are they aware that they are contributing to the construction of another parallel state structure, a real, non-legal alternative to the rule of law and the Constitution?
Thomas Hobbes said: “All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called 'Facts.' They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.” Our Leviathan is ready to eat all of us and the only exit is through the law.

GÜNAL KURŞUN (Cihan/Today's Zaman)