The generals, former Land Forces Commander Gen. Aytaç Yalman, former Air Forces Commander Gen. İbrahim Fırtına and former Naval Forces Commander Adm. Özden Örnek, all of whom retired in 2004, are expected to testify to Ergenekon prosecutors on Saturday on coup plans nicknamed “Moonlight,” “Blonde Girl” and “Glove” mentioned in a journal, allegedly kept by Örnek, detailing plans against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). Analysts who find the move a promising one -- because it is a new thing in Turkey to ask coup conspirers to account for their actions -- hail the fact that Turkey is ridding itself of the coup mentality.Calling the fact that the generals will testify to prosecutors an exciting development, Milliyet’s Hasan Cemal says if Turkey wants to be a country that is democratic and governed by the rule of law, and if the military is to operate within the boundaries of the law, it is inevitable that those who plan coups be brought before justice. Questioning the motivation behind the military members making the plans, Cemal refers to famous historian Cemil Koçak, who explained: “There lies a belief behind the motivation to stage a coup that suggests only military personnel can save, defend and administer this country. Nobody can achieve this other than members of the military. Those who are opposed to the military are traitors. This mentality is still evident in the military today.”
Having heard that Adm. Örnek will deny being the owner of the coup diaries in his testimony, Sabah’s Nazlı Ilıcak says that many of the things written in Örnek’s diary have already been confirmed by then-Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Özkök. In addition to this, she says four experts commissioned by the Ergenekon prosecutors revealed that the diary was authentic and belonged to Örnek. “Turkey has changed. The Nokta magazine was forced to close due to ‘financial problems’ after it published Örnek’s coup diaries on March 29, 2007. Many of our colleagues back then claimed that the diaries were a fabrication. Much water has passed under the bridge since then, and those waters are now slowly cleaning the coup mentality in Turkey,” says Ilıcak.
According to Vatan’s Okay Gönensin, the recent appearance before the judiciary of military personnel engaged in coup plans is the turning point for real democracy and Turkey’s rise in civilized society. In order for the completion of the judicial process regarding the case of coup generals and the end of military interventions, it is necessary to bring the perpetrators of the Sept. 12, 1980 military coup before the court. “The military administration of Sept. 12 has to give an account of the damage it did to the country, and the torture of thousands of people during that time,” suggests Gönensin.
