While Başbuğ’s remarks were interpreted as an admission of fact by some, others questioned by whom and for what reasons the chief of General Staff might have been wiretapped.Zaman’s Mustafa Ünal questions the reasoning and people behind wiretapping Başbuğ and posting his voice recording on Web sites hours before the National Security Council (MGK) meeting and amidst the ongoing debates over a judicial controversy. Recalling Başbuğ’s statements to a newspaper early this month when he said, “If we run out of patience, we will start sharing with the public all we know,” Ünal wonders whether the posting of this voice recording was a response to his statements. Ünal finds a General Staff statement unsatisfactory regarding the voice recording, which confirmed its authenticity while noting that Başbuğ was speaking to Turkish military officers in a foreign country, and asks: “The General Staff only mentions the venue where Başbuğ spoke. Other questions are left unanswered. How was he wiretapped? How could that voice recording be leaked? Why has it been leaked now? The answers to these questions are important. Why did Başbuğ make that speech? Are there questions of an international conspiracy, or are these indications of a fight we witness before every August meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAŞ).”
No matter who wiretapped Başbuğ for what reason, Ünal says the fact that wiretapping has gone as far as Başbuğ is very worrisome and unacceptable. “Nobody can sleep lightly in a country where the chief of General Staff is being wiretapped. Nobody can be sure about their not being wiretapped. This case should certainly be clarified as this is not only Başbuğ’s problem but a security issue for Turkey,” suggests Ünal.
Bugün’s Erhan Başyurt says not only are secret documents leaked from the General Staff but the Chief of General Staff Gen. Başbuğ can be wiretapped, which he describes as merely an indication of weakness. Referring to strategist Sedat Laçiner, who likened the case to the “sack incident” in northern Iraq in 2003 when US soldiers covered the heads of Turkish soldiers with sacks, he says Laçiner terms the wiretapping of Başbuğ as the second “sack incident.” “We know you very well, pay attention to your actions. This case is less likely to be the work of Ergenekon, [a shadowy crime network which has alleged links within the state] and more likely to be the case of foreign intelligence services,” Başyurt quotes Laçiner as saying.
Star’s Mustafa Karaalioğlu says illegal wiretapping can never be accepted but that wiretapping the chief of General Staff indicates a national security problem and is never acceptable. “This problem [wiretapping] is gradually growing, not only in Turkey but in all democracies,” he regrets.
