There has been a fight going on in Turkey for the last year. This fight is taking place between a legitimately elected government and a parallel structure endeavoring to topple the government through a type of coup. On December 17 and December 25 of 2013, that parallel structure targeted senior government members close to then prime minister, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, under the pretext of a graft and corruption probe. Well, what is that parallel structure?To thoroughly understand the issue, we need to have a look at the situation then U.S. President George W. Bush and his team were in after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. During Bush's first term as president it was Vice President Dick Cheney who actually pulled the strings. This is confirmed by American journalists and analysts as well. Following the 9/11 attacks, Cheney and his legal adviser, David Addington, immediately stepped in. Addington instantly said that the president could make whatever decision he deemed necessary in a state of war and emergency, free from legal restraints. Then Attorney General John Ashcroft was bypassed. It became evident that Cheney and Addington wanted to create a parallel government. Cheney and his team within the administration managed to create a de facto parallel government that did not suspend the constitution and de jure government bodies, but circumvented them while being ready to suspend them when necessary.That parallel structure covered three areas. First, within the narrow framework of the U.S.'s presidential administrative structure, it used the president's executive power while bypassing Congress and making decisions above the law. Second, in foreign policy, a clique in the Pentagon sidelined the State Department and made decisions that would lead to wars. And finally, this parallel government deployed mercenaries and unscrupulous private military contractors in place of U.S. army troops.Of course, judicial backing was needed to do all of this. Led by Cheney, this team had favorable decisions issued by the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel. That parallel structure was behind every lawless action committed by the U.S. between 2001 and 2008. Prominent American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh used to call this clique "an autonomous chain of command."During that period, even Air Force One's codes were stolen. No one knew much about the content of the 362-page USA Patriot Act that President Bush had been persuaded to sign into law. Every type of legal and illegal wiretapping and surveillance increased in that period and large numbers of people were monitored. Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold was the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act, saying: "If this bill passes, we will sacrifice the liberties of the American people without firing a shot."Turkey has also been keenly feeling a parallel structure for the last year. In the past, with the slightest opposition from people, juntas within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) used to declare these people enemies of the TSK, and even of the Republic and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Past coup leaders used our dear soldiers and Atatürk as a screen for their illegal acts. When someone challenged Kemalist ideology or criticized Atatürk they would end up in court. That tutelary mentality of old Turkey cost the country dearly.While hoping to get rid of this single-party mentality and attain a new, inclusive judicial system, this time we came up against judges and prosecutors affiliated with the Gülen Movement, also known as Hizmet, or "service." Kemalist judges were replaced by members of the movement. Having infiltrated the bureaucracy and organizing especially in the police force and judiciary, the parallel structure brought its own agenda to the fore on February 7, 2012. Gülenists tried to arrest National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Chief Hakan Fidan. Fidan wanted to resolve the most important problem in the history of Turkey through dialogue and negotiations with Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the PKK, along with 300 other members of the MİT.It is known that when the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) came to power in 2002, top cadres of the army disliked Erdoğan. As we all know, the Ergenekon structure tried to topple Erdoğan through various attempted coups. Even the generals of the time do not deny this anymore. The junta in the army had to be called to account within the law. Gülenist prosecutors and judges helped at this point. They did important things in Ergenekon and Sledgehammer (Balyoz) trials.Later, however, the parallel structure began to eliminate those it deemed as posing an obstacle to its operatives indiscriminately, in an effort to clear the way for its own cadres. Soldiers, police officers, bureaucrats, journalists and academics who had been in no way connected to the attempted coups, were eliminated. That is exactly what Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan termed as a "plot against the national army." Afterward, the parallel structure, which aimed to form a shadow government, put thousands of people in prisons through such investigations and operations conducted by its operatives in law enforcement agencies and the judiciary including alleged match fixing, Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), Ahmet Mahmut Ünlü (also known as Cübbeli Ahmet Hoca), Oda TV, Revolutionary Headquarters Organization, rating and the alleged Tevhid Selam terrorist organization investigation that exploded in their face. Furthermore, this structure arrested and jailed the former Chief of Staff İlker Başbuğ on charges of being the leader of a terrorist organization.Trying to efface these sins now, the parallel structure says, "We have done everything with the government's knowledge." Of course, this is an out-and-out lie. When Başbuğ was arrested, Erdoğan said it was not acceptable. Furthermore, he objected to the accusation of leading a terrorist organization. Additionally, Erdoğan suspended police Chief Ali Fuat Yılmazer, who played a leading role in the arrest of journalist Nedim Şener from office, a day later. Prosecutor Zekeriya Öz, who arrested another journalist, Ahmet Şık, was dismissed from office in 2011. Had Erdoğan backed these trials, these dismissals would not have taken place.That is just what the parallel structure planned to do on December 17 and December 25. By tarring everyone with the same brush without a legal basis, members of the parallel structure planned to take the country back 30 years. But they could not achieve this goal. The people spoiled their game first in the March 30 local elections and then by electing Erdoğan president in the August 10 election.The parallel structure's misdeeds are not limited to these contrived trials. Its members wiretapped the prime minister's encrypted phone conversations. They also illegally wiretapped the phones of ministers, bureaucrats, businessmen and posted the audio recordings of their conversations on the Internet and YouTube. But the eavesdropping did not stop there. On March 1, 2014, a secret meeting was held in the Foreign Ministry building. Fidan, then Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, then Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu and the deputy chief of general staff were present. Plans for possible military action in Syria were discussed at the meeting. By wiretapping even this meeting and posting the recording on YouTube, the parallel structure shot itself in the foot, for it threatened national security.The operations beginning on July 22, 2014 and continuing with the latest one on December 14 aimed to root the parallel structure out of the state. These operations will continue. This structure will be brought to account within the law. The December 14 operation in particular is in no way a blow to the media. Those raising this claim do not know about Turkey's internal balance. Just as Western democracies will never allow a parallel structure, a state within the state, Turkey will not allow it, either. That is just the way it is.