Accompanying the piece written on the occasion of the anniversary of prosecutor Doğan Öz’s murder is an important announcement. While Etraf is trying to lift the veil over the murder of Ankara Deputy Prosecutor Öz -- who prepared and submitted the first official report on the counter-guerilla to then-Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit -- it also gives news of a murder that will make much bigger waves. The news piece says daily Milliyet’s Editor-in-Chief Abdi İpekçi will be murdered within one week, also giving details as to the period that will follow the murder. According to the newspaper’s claims, the murder suspect will be caught but that his interrogation at the police station will be cut short when martial law is instated. The newspaper says the killer will escape from the country’s most well-guarded military prison and be whisked abroad and also that he will assassinate the pope in Rome. The newspaper adds that 30 years later, the killer will be released like a hero. Military and civilian authorities react to the newspaper, saying no such wild and heinous plan will take place. The official reaction can be summarized as thus: “To take seriously or comment upon the allegations in question will create information pollution and in particular serve the aims of those who want to create tension within society.”The above news is entirely fictional; there is no such newspaper nor was there any such news piece. But unfortunately, all of the events described are real. Prosecutor Öz, who prepared a report on the counter-guerilla, was slain. A year later, journalist İpekçi fell victim to a similar murder. And the period following these murders was exactly as described above. If we had a time machine, we could go back to those days. We could publish a newspaper called Etraf and write about the things that we know. We would have received the same reactions then as the Taraf daily is today in response to its publication of the Sledgehammer Security Operation Plan; as it is, the section above that I put in quotation marks is from a Turkish General Staff statement on the subject.
Taraf is in possession of serious documents related to the plan’s creation. And what’s more, in an implicit admission, retired Gen. Çetin Doğan -- accused of having penned the document -- said such war games and scenarios were drawn up against possible domestic threats. In a written statement the General Staff admits that a planning seminar was held on the relevant date “regarding external threats.” There are points in both of the statements that contradict themselves and each other; the most important of these is the discrepancy between domestic versus external threats. Taraf had also said the documents it possesses were bound as seminar texts. The stance of the military headquarters, which confirmed the seminar, toward the document contents remains unclear. Another element that begs explanation is the trivialization of the documents as a “scenario.” For example, why aren’t there any mistakes where, among the list of journalists considered “friendly,” a name from another camp had been added by mistake? The opposite can also be asked: Why aren’t any names like Süheyl Batum accidentally included on the list of journalists to be arrested?
We have the right to ask those who classify the document-supported allegations as “ridiculous and stupid” and trivialize them: Is there any believable explanation for the events in Taksim Square on May 1, 1977, the Sivas massacre, the Gazi neighborhood provocation and the attack on the Council of State? Can you please clarify sensible reasons for the execution of elected Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and two of his ministers? Can you explain why the Kahramanmaraş events continued for three days despite an order for intervention by Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit? Can you run then-Chief of General Staff Gen. Kenan Evren’s excuse of “We don’t have enough soldiers” through your mind one more time? Last question: Do you still think the public is naïve enough to believe all of this?
