It is unprecedented that the Turkish civilian judiciary and police detained and interrogated many top commanders in a single incident like they did early Monday morning when they launched operations. The first such case, in fact, began almost two years ago when several retired generals were arrested and put in jail over charges of inciting an armed uprising to unseat the government, and the case is widely known as the Ergenekon trial.
Such judicial processes against the members of the politically powerful Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), which has intervened in politics through five different types of military coups since 1960 on the grounds that the secular establishment was in danger, have not been usual until recently.
But the fact that the judiciary has been acting against illegal acts allegedly committed by military members or civilians -- senior police officers have recently been arrested over charges of being part of organized crime -- should be read as positive signs on the way towards installing the supremacy of the rule of law in Turkey, which has long been ignored in the cases of senior and famous personalities.
Top active duty and former generals have either been arrested or their interrogations are continuing over their alleged involvement in the biggest and bloodiest coup plot, codenamed Sledgehammer, which included designing scenarios such as bombing two big mosques in İstanbul while planning to shoot down a Turkish F-16 in the Aegean Sea to trigger a war with Greece and later put the blame on the political authority. It had been calculated by the alleged planners of the Sledgehammer coup plot scenario that the creation of such a chaotic situation in Turkey would result in a military takeover.
An İstanbul court last Wednesday formally charged and ordered seven senior Turkish military officers jailed for this alleged plot to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), devised in 2003 and disclosed in January by the Taraf daily.
As the roundups and interrogations of the top uniformed men continued, Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ gathered his 13 generals and two rear admirals at the Ankara headquarters on Tuesday before releasing a statement. In an unusual move, the statement disclosed the meeting and said they discussed the seriousness of the events, indicating the latest wave of apprehension concerning senior former and current generals.
A former Turkish officer described the disclosure by the Turkish military at the meeting as a veiled threat to the political authority to shorten the interrogation period of the generals. The meeting also contained a message to the TSK officers that their commanders are in control of the situation!
But the same source did not believe that the military would take action in the form of a coup or the release of a memorandum to warn the government.
Today the TSK has to display a democratic stance and cannot take any action since the people have clearly displayed an aversion to military coups. International conditions do not encourage the military to stage a coup or release a memorandum, either.
“There is another film being shown now that the military is not used to. It has been trying to adapt to the new situation,” says a newly retired Turkish colonel.
Henri Barkey, a Turkey expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told The Associated Press yesterday that “a societal change is taking place in Turkey at the moment.”
“What is striking about this struggle is that nobody had ever held the military accountable for what it had done. No one ever said what you are doing is wrong,’’ he added in a telephone interview with the AP.
Now, I think, the military is being held accountable for what it has been doing.
It is crucial, in the meantime, that the Turkish prosecutors observe universal legal standards during the interrogation process of the generals to ensure that justice is done and that detentions are not perceived as revenge taken against the TSK, which has always seen itself as being above the law.
Though slowly, Turkey has begun to initiate legal procedures against wrongdoers and against those who have escaped from the law due to their privileged status.
In my opinion, Turkey has this time averted a military coup forever with the detentions of former or present uniformed men while settling its scores with the deep state through the rule of law.
