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 have retired, testified at the weekend.
Diaries published in 2007 by the Nokta weekly magazine, which was forced to close, were later confirmed by prosecutors to belong to Örnek and revealed plans to stage coups devised in 2003 and 2004 code named “Sarıkız” (Blonde Girl) and Ayışığı (Moonlight). The then-chief of general staff, retired Gen. Hilmi Özkök, during his testimony as a witness several months ago, hinted at the existence of the plans. Özkök is understood to have prevented the coups from taking place.
Retired former Gendarmerie Commander Gen. Şener Eruygur, currently on trial on charges of provoking armed unrest to topple the government, was one of the architects of the plans.
Not surprisingly, Örnek denied that the diaries belonged to him while the two remaining former generals denied their involvement in any coup plots. The commanders were released after they had given their testimonies.
But this does not mean that charges will not be filed against them if prosecutors obtain new evidence supporting the commanders’ involvement in the coup plans.
The fact that three former commanders were brought to court is in itself a positive step in at least discouraging future attempts to create juntas within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). Their testimony in particular becomes important at a time when classified documents leaked to the media have revealed that military-linked plans to discredit the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) have continued to be prepared until recently. These include an action plan against the government as well as the “Cage” operation intended to carry out assassinations against non-Muslims and a bomb attack on children visiting a museum in İstanbul as a means of discrediting the AK Party.
The appearance of the former service commanders before the prosecutors is hoped to discourage those within the military from formulating further plans that will ultimately destabilize Turkey.
In a separate investigation, the arrest of a colonel and a second lieutenant at the weekend brings the total number of active officers arrested to 10. The charges of planning the assassination of retired Navy Commander Adm. Metin Ataç and current Navy Commander Eşref Uğur Yiğit have further increased the conviction that the TSK needs to free itself from these unscrupulous elements.
Former service commanders are testifying as part of an ongoing Ergenekon investigation under which retired top generals, including Eruygur, active officers, as well as journalists and academics are being tried. Ergenekon is a clandestine ultra-nationalist organization whose members are accused of trying to unseat the government through inciting armed unrest.
Part of the investigation that seemed to have been neglected was the failure to trace the financial resources generated to organize the illegal activities. However, as I mentioned in my previous column, there have finally been some steps taken towards this end. In particular, prosecutors have recently initiated an investigation into whether some resources generated from arms procurement projects were transferred for use in the long-standing plans to bring down the government.
Turkish military projects and military budgets are not subject to civilian democratic oversight. Thus, it is crucial for the prosecutors to carry out a thorough investigation to see whether several controversial arms tenders contracted in the past were used partly to generate income for the alleged architects of the coups.
A veteran defense industrialist told me recently that there have been some military projects which have been problematic in the way they were contracted, which raised questions in his mind as to whether some of the resources earned from these military contracts were used to generate income for Ergenekon activities.
