Later, further claims were made, and the emerging information and findings multiply the question marks about these officers working at the Special Forces Command. It was found that such plans were not only made for Arınç.
As the investigation into the military officers continued -- one is a colonel and the other a major -- the General Staff made no statement about it for several days. A profound silence! Yet, just a week ago, Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ was teaching lessons to journalists, professors and even to members of the judiciary, telling them what they should do in a commanding style aboard a warship.
But you can’t put toothpaste back in the tube. It is evident that there are several juntas nested within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), an institution with a past of gallantry and heroism. For this reason, even if one incident can be covered up, another one will rear its ugly head. It is no longer possible to cover all of them up or continue to act as if nothing has happened. To cover up these incidents by arguing that there is an asymmetrical psychological warfare operation against the TSK or to fail to investigate and penalize illegal networks amounts to more than a simple act of irresponsibility.
Please check your memory. When an illegal network called the Sauna gang was exposed, the country was shocked. Military officers working at the Special Forces Command were members of that network. There were maps, assassination plots, lists of names and so on. Later, another network, this time called the Eryaman gang, was discovered, and the general public felt the same feelings. This network, too, had military officers as its members and conducted illegal activities.
The series of events starting with Sauna and continuing up to today clearly shows that among military officers there are some people who fail to perform their primary duties, but intend to manipulate civilian politics and establish illegal networks and juntas to this end. The information and documents seized in a police raid into a house in Ümraniye, İstanbul, served as evidence that illegal networks like the Sauna and Eryaman gangs are very common. No force can destroy the documents that are part of the Ergenekon investigation dossier, and as long as those documents exist, the General Staff will be under suspicion because of the military officers involved in juntas. If only our army had never been associated with such illegal activities and if only competent authorities would immediately eliminate those illegal networks…
Imagine a country where the armed forces continually engage in political activities and make grave errors, like the April 27, 2007 memorandum, and attempt to directly interfere with presidential elections and where members of the armed forces are suspected of plotting the assassination of politicians. Who will believe that country is truly a democracy or that the rule of law is respected in that country?
According to the “Plan to finish off the AK Party [Justice and Development Party] and [Fethullah] Gülen,” some “agents” were planted within the party, and psychological warfare was conducted by relying on the negative reactions created by foreign policy initiatives, with the aim of overthrowing the government.
It was further planned that traps would be set for Gülen and his followers, raids conducted at some houses where weapons had been planted beforehand and innocent people accused of being members of an armed terrorist organization. When this document was brought to light, they tried to punish those who had leaked it although they were supposed to penalize those who had prepared it. They exerted pressure on the judiciary, and they made sure that the media organizations that support them published articles and news stories to dismissing the document as a “piece of paper” and covering up the incident. When the original version of the document was found, they were dead silent for a time. They still tried to discredit it through defamation campaigns. They attempted to disable the Ergenekon trial by employing the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK). At this point, the Cage action plan was discovered. Another scandalous document! It included assassinations of our non-Muslim citizens and the bombing of a museum when children were visiting it. Moreover, the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) issued a report that verified that the document was authentic and the signature beneath it belonged to a colonel. The General Staff failed to provide an explanation for this either.
The military officials insist on accusing others. It is wrong to pretend that the many explosives, weapons and ammunition found buried underground do not belong to the TSK.
Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ had a good opportunity to restore confidence in his institution when he took office. Noting that he would not allow antidemocratic activities within the army, he said that they would not permit such people to operate within the TSK. And this was the right thing to do. The existence of juntas inflicts the greatest damage on the TSK. Failure to combat these juntas would create the biggest problem for the chief of general staff. Turkey is not an ordinary country, and its army is not an institution that can be managed irresponsibly or that can suffer a continuous loss of credibility.
Nevertheless, it is unfortunate for our army to be associated with juntas despite many campaigns to improve its image. It is no longer possible to conceal this bitter truth. Başbuğ must keep his promise and eradicate the juntas. Attempts to afford protection to them give rise to suspicions about the involvement of high-ranking officers in such juntas, and if this is the case, it is a grave offense. People have the right to expect plausible explanations and action in a country rife with juntas.
