We all know this part, but what we didn't know was if there was any direct action on behalf of the military toward the court members to extract the desired decision. Rumor has it that an army chief with a friend among the court members warned him that if they didn't act accordingly by making the presidential election impossible, the military would step in.

The army is represented in the Constitutional Court with an appointee from the Supreme Military Court of Appeals. In the present court the military appointee, Serdar Özgüldür, is from the navy. The navy chief of the time, Adm. Yener Karahanoğlu, retired last year. A journalist from Milliyet asked him about the rumors and he retorted that if he were a coup plotter, he would have done it differently -- unannounced. He confessed that he contacted and spoke with the member from the navy, although he denied the alleged nature of the talks. "Just a friendly talk," he said. "We never indulged in judicial matters on the court's agenda."

This is a time for denials. The admiral's denial was followed by Tülay Tuğcu's, former head of the Constitutional Court. According to a rumor that has been in circulation quite some time, President Tuğcu was in shock when she was notified of the army's threat to the court and she cried and wondered aloud how she would look her grandchildren in the eye if the court obeyed the army's order.

In her denial, she simply said that no army representative approached her personally and the court members had acted according to their own consciences in their decisions. I would have liked it better if she had denied the affair in its entirety, rather than denying only a direct approach, but a denial is a denial nonetheless...

The most curious development occurred the next day when the incumbent president of the Constitutional Court came up with his own "denial." His pronouncement was more of an acceptance and accusation than a denial, when he said unequivocally that there existed those trying to influence the judges by raising claims and creating issues over court decisions. He denounced them as attacks on the judges' integrity. "The real aim of these assaults is to infuse into the judge's conscience and force him to decide in a way he wouldn't decide otherwise," he said. His pronouncement ended with a clear-cut declaration: "The conscience of the court members is closed to any outside interference."

Well, I feel lost here.

When we started to hear rumors about pressure on the Constitutional Court to extract a decision to please the army, we didn't have any names. We now have names that would give us an idea how a court decision might have been influenced, but many in the chain of events have come up with denials.

The navy commander accused of using his office's clout to extract a court decision has denied doing this. The rumor was also denied by the court's former president, who captured our sympathy with her tears supposedly shed during the proceedings when the court members were notified of the army's intention. The incumbent court president didn't leave any space for outside interference.

The only missing link is the Constitutional Court member from the navy. Although he is the key to the issue and the central figure in the rumors, Serdar Özgüldür hasn't said a word about the matter.

Maybe the navy chief is right that he didn't mean to intimidate the court when he was speaking with his "old friend," but Özgüldür mistook his words and related them to his friends in the court as if the navy chief's words contained a threat. Or, Özgüldür related his old friend's concern as it was conveyed to him verbatim, containing no threat, but the other court members misunderstood him. Maybe he told them what he heard and they understood the meaning correctly.

So far, it is on the record that the navy chief spoke with his comrade-in-arms who happened to be a member of the Constitutional Court, and the Constitutional Court's decision was really shocking and caught everyone by surprise. What happened in between is a mystery for us.

Until Özgüldür discloses the real story we cannot be certain of what really happened during the Constitutional Court proceedings.

What I liked most in this story is a small detail: The Constitutional Court's previous president shed tears when she heard that they, as the members of the court, had to decide against their own judicial acumen and conscience.

Whether it is an unfounded rumor or a reality, whenever I rewind the story in my mind's eye, my own eyes become moist.