This stage is very important. For the first time ever in Turkey people will be prosecuted for trying to overthrow the legitimate ruling power by staging a coup. This is very important because Turkey cannot democratize until it settles it account with coup and junta supporters. Former Land Forces Commander Gen. Aytaç Yalman, former Air Forces Commander Gen. İbrahim Fırtına and former Naval Forces Commander Adm. Özden Örnek were first brought to public attention in 2007 when the Nokta magazine published excerpts from diaries containing information about coup attempts. Örnek claimed the diaries did not belong to him. Both former Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt and current Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ back him up. However, Ergenekon prosecutors had the diaries examined by experts. Four experts found that the source of the diaries was the computer of the “Naval Commander” and its author was “Adm. Örnek” and the person who made the last modification was the “Naval Forces Commander.”The three force commanders were requested to testify after a particular development in the Ergenekon case last week. The presiding judge, Köksal Şengün, said to the prosecutors, “As far as I know there is no investigation into the coup attempt, is there?” to which the prosecutors said: “The Ayışığı (Moonlight), Yakamoz (Sea Sparkle) and Eldiven (Glove) coup attempts constitute the essence of the case. We are trying the coup attempts in that case. That is the essence of the second case.”
Those who are trying to disrupt the Ergenekon case and protect the suspects are having an increasingly hard time doing it. I know that when the trial of the coup planners begins they will start a campaign saying: “It is not a crime to be involved in a coup attempt. How can there be a case against a coup that did not even take place?” As if there can be a trial for a coup that did take place. But all these efforts are in vain because the dirty and bloody structure they are trying to hide is becoming a bit more exposed and torn each day. How will they be able to conceal and cover every aspect? On the first day of the holiday two colonels and one lieutenant colonel were arrested in relation to the Cage Operation Action Plan. Don’t think lightly of it for it had plans to secretly place explosives in a submarine at the Koç Museum and detonate it while a large group of students were visiting.
The executive editors of dailies such as Hürriyet, Milliyet, Vatan and Akşam all chose to ignore the Cage plan. But when three officers were arrested some of them could not continue to stay silent. Güngör Mengi from Vatan remembered responsible reporting and said, “We made a mistake in discretion due to extreme cautiousness.” Reha Muhtar protested saying, “If this isn’t news then what is?”
Another development happened yesterday. It was decided that separate indictments will be prepared for the loaded 15 light anti-tank weapons and ammunition found on land owned by Ergenekon suspect Bedrettin Dalan’s İstek Foundation in İstanbul’s Poyrazköy district and the Cage Operation Action Plan. In a new report released by the European Parliament that was debated yesterday, the point that the Ergenekon case is an opportunity for democracy and law was underlined once again and it was also noted again that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) intervention in politics and foreign policy was alarming. This is not a story. In other words it’s not a children’s fairy tale about a “Blond Girl watching the Sea Sparkle under the Moonlight when a man wearing a Glove brings her a Cage.”
An entire society has awakened and even the Europeans have opened their eyes. We are tired of fairy tales. We announce this especially to all pro-status quo policeman and the well-regarded individuals who insist on protecting junta supporters.
