It doesn’t matter if these individuals are your loved ones or if they are people you feel close to. If a court issues an arrest warrant for a suspect, no one, not even their family members, friends or employers can hide or protect them. The judiciary will take this up as a case of “aiding and abetting” a crime and will start to pursue not only those wanted but also the people who protect them.The incident that has been going in the last week is no different than the picture I tried to paint above. Let me explain the incident in brief: Public prosecutors prepared an indictment on the attempt known as the Sledgehammer coup plan. The information and documents that have been uncovered are hair-raising. For example, a group of people within the army was going to bomb historic mosques in İstanbul, protestors were going to be coordinated in the aftermath of the scandalous incident, those demonstrators were going to attack military facilities and the officers in those facilities were going to stop the “uprising.” Another striking example was the plans to create a war between Turkey and Greece. There were plans of downing our own military jets. The purpose is obvious: to spark chaos in the country to overthrow the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, “unleash their forces over İstanbul” and set up a military administration that will “remain until a new generation is raised.”
The indictment was accepted by the court. Some circles have been in a state of panic ever since that day. The military and civilian bureaucracy has declared mobilization to save those involved in the Sledgehammer case. But, you can’t put the toothpaste back into the tube. Ten days ago, the 10th High Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for 102 suspects. You can’t undo this ruling. The suspects in question will appear before the court, and the allegations they are being charged with will be read out to them.
But precisely at this stage, an unprecedented system of protection and preservation in the history of law has been developed. The 102 military officers for whom there is an arrest warrant have disappeared. Retired generals who said they would be willing to go to the courthouse if they were summoned cannot be found at their addresses or reached at their numbers. There is an obvious case of avoidance and escape. Some newspaper have written that retired and active duty military officers are hiding in certain military quarters. Is this fair? How can the General Staff allow such unlawfulness? Why would the minister of defense ever want to be passive in the face of such a mistake or give low profile messages that sometimes connote unlawful methods.
This is an outright crime. Just like how no individual can protect anyone for whom the court has issued an arrest warrant, the General Staff and the Defense Ministry cannot make the same mistake, either. Anyone who insists on this mistake will be guilty and will have to go to court for “aiding and abetting a crime.”
While all this unlawfulness is going on publicly, what is the media, which has been losing prestige, doing? A part of the media is showing reverence to unlawfulness by publishing operational news that supports it. Another part is just trying to save face by remaining quiet. I guess the wheels of the law work differently for influential and privileged people and for normal citizens. Is this what a state of law should be like? Is this what is meant by making democracy and all its institutions effective?
