I was almost included in the graft operation

I have testified as a “suspect.” It was a rainy afternoon when a text message came to my phone.
The message read: “Mr. Ahmet Hakan. Within the context of the investigation file numbered ...  your statement is required. You are asked to be present at this court house at this date.”

When I received this ultra-technologic and perfectly polite invitation...

As an experienced citizen of the Republic of Turkey, who is accustomed to a country where the courthouse cannot be this technological and this polite, I thought, “Am I being framed?”

I immediately called my lawyer. My lawyer told me, “Let me look into it and I’ll get back to you.”

After the research, my lawyer gave me this information nervously: “They are calling you to give a statement as a suspect within the context of the famous Dec. 17/Dec. 25, 2013 graft operation.”

As a first reaction, I said, “God, what is this?”

Next, I said, “What on earth have I got to do with Dec. 17/Dec. 25, etc.”?

As the third reaction, I started thinking, “Are the people who are calling me to testify, are they the parallels? Well, the parallels were dispersed, weren’t they?”

My fourth reaction was imagining myself, for a moment, playing with shoe boxes, engaged in expensive watches, running after coupon plots and all the while donating a considerable amount of money to a foundation.

As a fifth reaction, people like the Egemens, Zafers and Muammers kept coming to my mind…

As a sixth reaction, I was appalled. I was frozen, just like that.

Right at this sixth stage, my lawyer spoke and said, “I will take a look at the file shortly. I will...