It is so tragicomic that while many journalists and intellectuals are being tried under the infamous Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) that assigns prison sentences for those that publicly criticize state institutions including the military, members of state institutions that admit their wrongdoings publicly are immune from any legal punishment.
A remark made by a retired Gendarmerie Col. Erdal Sarızeybek in his latest book named "I Saw the Revenge" in which he gave a detailed account of an atmosphere of clashes in 1992 in the Şemdinli township located in the southeast under the guise of protecting the citizens created by the gendarmerie forces (Sabah, Sept. 25, 2007) horrified me once again.
"We did crazy things during the fight against terror [the fight against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)]. … Our plan was as follows; once every two to three nights, we shot tracer fire from 120 mm mortars over the city center. This was followed by opening machine gun fire against predefined targets. Then we fired rockets, creating a full atmosphere of clashes. The next day, we gathered the people in the city center, explained to them how the people and the city would be badly affected by a possible clash, and advised them not to allow the terrorists to come to the city. Once every week, this practice has been implemented in the city for a long time. You may describe this as a crazy act, but we achieved results and prevented people from inflicting damage. The rest is not important," Tokat said. (Sabah, Sept. 25, 2007).
The same Şemdinli witnessed a bombing incident at a bookstore of an alleged PKK informer that culminated with the trial of two noncommissioned officers back in November 2005. But lately, a civilian court has decided to transfer the case to a military court suggesting an acquittal for the crime suspects.
In fact, back in July 2005, a revelation by retired General Altay Tokat that he had given orders to throw bombs into areas near the houses of judges and prosecutors newly appointed to the Southeast to force them to get into line, that is to say not to take PKK terrorism lightly, (Sabah, July 27, 2005) has gone unpunished.
An Initiative for the Patriotic Front Jurists (YCHG) filed a complaint against Tokat at the time, but no punishment came from the judicial system against the ex-general.
Former Gen. Tokat was only quietly dismissed from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) which entered Parliament following the July 22 elections.
As the above-mentioned jurists put it when they filed a complaint against Tokat at that time, isn't it horrifying that a person whose basic duty has been to ensure public order and security has in fact been violating this principle, inciting people, among other things, to hatred.
How can acts that do not help in finding a solution to problems, but instead provoke violence be justified and portrayed as legal?
Decision makers in Turkey should think several times if they really want a solution to the country's Kurdish problem in particular and to the country's problem of social injustice that has been creating a breeding ground for all sorts of criminal acts in general that divert our energy from addressing the pending problem of installing a fully functioning democracy.
For how long are we going to tolerate the absence of the supremacy of the rule of law in Turkey? For how long are we going to tolerate a system that addresses the fight against terror with a mentality that very frequently violates the principle of the rule of law and that does not hold accountable those who commit crimes under the guise of fighting against terror?
The only way out of the current stalemate is for the political leadership as well as the opposition political parties to act together in fully installing the rule of law in the country.
But witnessing the current what I will describe as artificial row over the writing of a new constitution to replace the 1982 document dictated by the military, my hopes are fading in seeing an installation of a functioning democracy in Turkey.
Attempts to draft a brand new civilian constitution are overshadowed by the ongoing fierce fight between the staunchly secular elite who do not want to abandon their power and the political leadership playing into the hands of the former.
