In the statement, the prosecutor's office stressed that it reached the conclusion that there was no evidence the document was prepared by any department of the General Staff. “No indication of an order for the preparation of such a document [by members of the military] has been discovered. As the original version of the document has not been found, the General Staff's Military Prosecutor's Office has decided that there is no need for legal proceedings against the colonel [Dursun Çiçek, who allegedly signed the document],” read the statement. When this investigation was launched by the Military Prosecutor's Office, almost everyone was sure that it would not bear satisfactory results or punish those responsible for preparing such an outrageous plan because there were serious doubts about the neutrality of the military judiciary, and Wednesday's statement proved that these doubts were justified. In consideration of the military prosecutor's statement, Sabah's Emre Aköz wonders why the General Staff did not deny the existence of this document at the very first moment and why this investigation, which could have been completed in two days, lasted 12 days. “Why were the civilian prosecutors prevented from investigating Col. Çiçek? When the criminal reports proved that the signature on the document belonged to Çiçek, why did the General Staff release such a contradictory statement? Do General Staff personnel prepare action plans in their spare time in tea houses?” asks Aköz. He says the statements, accusations and evidence circulating over the past 12 days suggest that this document was prepared in the General Staff headquarters, noting that he has no doubts about this. “But the rest of the scenario is complicated: the action plan was either prepared upon an order from Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ or a pro-coup group within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) that is against Başbuğ,” writes Aköz.
Yeni Şafak's Ali Bayramoğlu interprets the military prosecutor's statement as acknowledging the existence of such a document but leaving questions about where it came from, whether it is fake or genuine and whether it belongs to Col. Çiçek unanswered. He says the Military Prosecutor's Office did not expand the investigation; it issued a verdict and saw the launch of a case into the colonel as unnecessary. Questioning this, Bayramoğlu says this means an end to judicial proceedings into the document. “Some may find this harsh but a coup investigation that was launched upon a military order can only bear this much. The military judiciary is as successful as military music,” he says.
Star's Mehmet Altan says he was not surprised by the military prosecutor's statement because he was not expecting the General Staff to expel those involved in the conspiracy from the military at the end of the investigation. He even says Wednesday's statement has strengthened his belief in the authenticity of the alleged military action plan.
