Two former chiefs of general staff spoke with Milliyet columnist Fikret Bila about these "coup diaries," saying, "If we are invited to court, we will go." Indeed, the court should appreciate their courage and invite them.Unlike İsmail Hakkı Karadayı, these two chiefs of general staff acted like real commanders. They did not attempt to deny anything, and they did plead complete ignorance.
Why are Balbay's notes so important? Previously, Nokta magazine had published the coup diaries that were said to belong to former Naval Forces Commander Adm. Özden Örnek. But Örnek denied any claim to them, saying, "They do not belong to me." The police department had conducted a technical examination and concluded that the diaries belong to Örnek. The ownership of the diaries was controversial, but their legitimacy was not. On television, two Cumhuriyet columnists, Hikmet Çetinkaya and Emre Kongar, said: "These notes were kept as a requirement of a journalist's profession. He kept these notes in order to write a series. If these diaries had not been posted on the Internet and were later published in the papers, they would have been published as a series in Cumhuriyet titled ‘Days of Tension.'"
Should we believe them? Balbay kept those notes because he firmly believed that a military coup would ultimately be launched. Indeed, these notes unfold the story of a journalist who acts as a mastermind in the coup attempt and boldly imparts his advice to commanders as to how they should act. He sees himself as the official journalist of the coup, and after the coup was launched, these notes would be published as evidence. "A heroic journalist protects the republic this way," the papers would proclaim, and statues of Balbay would be erected in public squares.
The biggest deception of all time is self-deception -- that a person thinks himself to be the smartest guy around and everybody else is just dumb. For this, our colleagues who said "We are all Balbay" wanted us to believe that they were exhibiting professional solidarity. "Journalists should not be silenced because of their ideas," they further said. However, they now should consult their consciences once again. How do they now see what Balbay did: as an act of journalism or as an actual step taken towards a military coup?
Freedom of the press is a sine qua non quality of democracy; the existence of journalists is dependent on the existence of democracy. A journalist cannot advocate a military coup that leads to the destruction of democracy in any country around the world. You cannot find a journalist like Balbay in Europe or in the US because a writer or representative from a newspaper in a democratic country does not give counsel to pro-coup generals, meet with them for hours to discuss coup plots, conspire with them or say to them, "Remove Özkök from office, and appoint the land forces commander to his post." A person who does these things cannot be defined as a journalist. No one will try to convince us that these elements are in the job description of a journalist. This is an insult to human intelligence. It is disrespect to mankind.
Our media organizations have previously partaken in evil deeds surrounding military coups -- this is what I really want to discuss regarding Balbay. This role played by media executives and, with some exceptions, reporters for television and newspapers that call themselves "mainstream media" is not a novel thing; the support they lend to coups with the logic that "democracy will extend freedom of religion and thought, thereby obstructing our power and threatening the military guardianship that protects us" is not new. This is not the first time media organizations have helped to incite military coups, and Balbay is not the first person who has participated in such provocations. The shame of Feb. 28 has not been completely wiped clean from some of our faces. The problem is there is there is a pro-coup media that follows a philosophy which inherently betrays democracy.
The media cannot live long with this shame. We must oppose the Balbays among us. All of those who say, "Democracy is OK, but if our favorites cannot assume office, then military coups are not so bad," might be Balbay. But the journalists, writers and editors-in-chief who say, "We advocate secularism, democracy and a social state governed by rule of law without having to choose one over the other," cannot be Balbay.
We are not Balbay -- and we never will be.
