Senior Staff Col. Dursun Çiçek, who works at the General Staff Operations Department 3rd Support Branch Directorate and who allegedly signed the controversial document, should have made a statement on the first day the issue was reported in the media.
If this document is fake, all Çiçek had to do was come out and say, “It's fake.” But instead, the owner of the signature, the colonel, is being kept from even the public prosecutors. It's a complete scandal that the colonel is not being summoned to give a statement when there is such strong suspicion of a criminal intent to completely destroy the constitutional order. The suspicions by far exceed the authority of military prosecutors. Making Turkey a victim of tactics to conceal the truth about a document that incites concern about a conspiracy theory against the state is neither understandable nor justifiable. For the General Staff Intelligence Department's lieutenant general to request information from the chief of police about an ongoing investigation is unbefitting a state of law. Members of the police force who are carrying out the investigation are acting like judicial police and working under the command of independent prosecutors, consequently hindering the confidentiality and soundness of the investigation. Then the general comes out and comments -- not on his staff -- but makes a conclusion about the document.
Suspicions are increasing. What's proper for a civilized country and a state that operates in accordance with the law is to prevent efforts to obscure the investigation and bring clarity to it. When the Taraf daily reported the scandal, a military hierarchy with full control over its subordinates needed to reveal the truth and satisfy public opinion. Delaying it has been perceived as preparation and an effort to obscure the facts.
Here we have a signed document with initials marked on each page. To understand if this document is authentic or fake, there are two steps that need to be taken. The first is to take a sample of Çiçek's handwriting and signature and the second is to compare the signature on the document with the sample handwriting in a state-of-the-art criminal laboratory. Why isn't this simple procedure, which is generally used to resolve even the simplest cases, not being used in an indignant investigation that will determine the fate of the country? The military prosecutor's haste to make a statement even before the document reached the prosecutor's office incited suspicion. Confidence in the military judiciary has been jeopardized because it is not independent and because it has a history of negative rulings.
How can the Military Prosecutor's Office, which hasn't taken the slightest action against infamous memorandums that deride people's honor and darken their future, act independently on such a critical investigation that puts the General Staff under suspicion?
We need light in the wake of this darkening. The civilian judiciary must intervene and all state institutions must mobilize. The government's political control and Parliament's will must be ready to shed light on the situation. If this investigation is carried out solely by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), it will not remove this great stain but, instead, make it worse. In the end, the loser will be Turkey.
