According to a story published in the Bugün daily on July 15, the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) on Oct. 10, 2007, intercepted a telephone conversation between two air forces officers. In the conversation one of the officers asked his superior to either shoot down or change the flight routes of (Israeli-made) Heron unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) because by locating their movements they were causing great damage to PKK militants, who he referred to as “our men.” The officer on the other end of the line responded, “We'll take care of that.” (It was later found out that one of the officers involved, now promoted to a higher rank, is currently a suspect in an investigation into the military wing of Ergenekon, a clandestine network charged with conspiring to overthrow the elected government.)
MİT had immediately informed the Land Forces Command, and the commander at the time (the current chief of General Staff) Gen. İlker Başbuğ on Oct. 28, 2007 ordered an investigation into the affair. The case was eventually sent to air forces judge Col. Ahmet Zeki Üçok, who after questioning the suspects had set them free. Üçok is currently the main defendant in a trial of alleged members of a gang accused of issuing fake medical reports to excuse clients from military service.
In a follow-up story, Bugün reported on July 19 that the officer who initiated the intercepted conversation had earlier spoken to a rear admiral in the Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC), which supervised the operation of the UAVs. It was discovered that the admiral in question was currently in charge of an important command.
The next day, a spokesman for the PKK made a statement calling the entire story a fabrication. The same day, the General Staff declared that a cover-up of the case was out of the question and that the investigation was being conducted by its military prosecutor. A spokesman for the General Staff explained three days later that the rather long (nearly three years) duration of the investigation was due to insufficient evidence.
The above sums up the remarkable story thus far. The story brings to mind the following: We, the citizens of Turkey, are well aware that the military in Turkey is deeply involved in politics, that military juntas conspiring for coups have abounded in its ranks, that its history is full of successful and failed coups and that involvement in politics is the major reason for its failures to do its job properly. We are also well aware that many liberal-minded Kurdish intellectuals believe in the “theory” that the Turkish “deep state” has from the outset been manipulating the PKK to delegitimize the Kurds' struggle for their cultural and political rights. This is, however, the first time we've encountered a story that implies that such a “theory” may indeed be relevant.
It is obvious that the recently appointed chief of MİT, impatient with the prolonged investigation of the case, has leaked the story to the press. The first question the story raises is how such an investigation can fail to be concluded for such a long time. And the more important question is, surely, how the case can be explained if the allegations are true, as implied by interceptions by MİT. As Bugün columnist Gülay Göktürk commented: “There are two probabilities. Either the officers intercepted in conversation are disguised PKK members, or those they were trying to protect are soldiers disguised as PKK militants. And since the Ergenekon link of one of them is established, the second probability seems to be the stronger.”
If Göktürk is right, two “theories” can be put forward to explain the case. The first “theory” is that within the Turkish state and its most important institution, the military, there is an undercover center (which is often referred to as the “deep state”) that is pursuing an undercover strategy. That strategy calls for the continuation of the armed insurgency by the PKK, which enables the military to legitimize its influence over the direction of the country. It regards laying down arms and engagement in legal politics by the PKK to be the greater danger to the territorial integrity of Turkey. The simpler other “theory” is the one about the “war lobby,” that there is a gang among the ranks of both the Turkish military and the PKK with a strong interest in sustaining the armed conflict which facilitates smuggling, especially drug trafficking, which has a very high economic value.
Whether the “theories” are valid or not, the judicial investigation must shed light on this very, very murky affair. Both the government and Parliament on the one hand, and civil society and the media on the other have to put pressure on the military prosecutors to reach a fast and sound conclusion.
