Then the Kafes (Cage) action plan, which was apparently on the military’s agenda in March of this year, was brought to light. And finally we had the opportunity to be informed about the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) action plan, which had been planned in painstakingly finer detail in early 2003. We were even able to listen to audio recordings about this plan.For the general public to be able to learn about these plans and abortive coups, two prerequisites had to obviously be fulfilled, which is the case today. The first prerequisite was the existence of a newspaper that had the courage to publish said documents. The second is the existence of military officers who had the courage to leak said documents.
It is also clear that there is a military staff that wants the army to return to its real duties and that opposes keeping the country under military tutelage. The reason behind this is that a state of military tutelage spoils the army from the inside and enables unsuitable and unskilled people from becoming career holders as promotion and reassignment criteria in the army become increasingly dependent on political views and attitudes toward the coup process. This implies the exclusion of many military officers who see military service as a “career” and perhaps have the potential to pursue an international career in their own field. On the other hand, it would not be surprising if such intense efforts to plan and stage a coup were to create a “political” opposition within the army. Let us recall that in the last two elections, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) had a crushing victory even in polls that were set up near military housing areas.
As for all of the coup attempts that have been exposed thus far, they all share an interesting aspect. Each coup attempt foresaw provoking and manipulating the Muslim segment of society and thereby proving the existence of a “pro-Shariah” movement, which would then be used as justification to overthrow the government. This is actually not a new strategy. The military used a similar scenario in 1997 when it overthrew the Welfare Party (RP) through a military intervention on Feb. 28. Television channels and newspapers were filled with terrifying examples of reactionaryism during that time. But we have now learned that all those stories were fake and that people were hired to carry them out. We also know “Islamists” were made to look guilty in the process leading up to the death of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, a process in which many non-Muslims were targeted, and in the 2006 Council of State attack. The Cage plan also focused on the same point.
The most recently discovered coup plan, named Sledgehammer, also details activities that would be carried out in the name of the Muslim segment, including bombing two mosques. The sole purpose of the plan was to finish off the AK Party government. The Sledgehammer plan was created a few months after the election and includes information on the structure of the government to be set up after the AK Party and provides names of individuals that would be assigned to key positions in the bureaucracy, including the judiciary and diplomatic service. It also provides a list of journalists “to be used” and a list of journalists “to be arrested.”
But in order for this scenario to be put into practice, the army must first go “into the field.” In other words, all public order services must be transferred over to the army in order for the explosions to take place and the Muslim segment to be manipulated. So it’s better if the country is first brought to the brink of war, and what better candidate is there than European Union member Greece? The Sledgehammer plan foresees increasing tension in the country and provoking Greece to shoot down a Turkish jet. To be on the safe side, if the Greek side doesn’t shoot down a Turkish jet, then the Turkish army will have to down one of its own jets.
Describing such a preposterous plan, developed with the cooperation of close to 150 military officers, as a “war game” is a sign that we are facing a situation that must immediately be brought to an end. The issue isn’t just about the army wasting its energy on maintaining tutelage over politics. All these plans have to do with creating a false reality. We have an institution that is not only incapable of fulfilling its essential duties, but one that creates a false perception of Turkey, that perceives an ever-larger part of society as a threat and that creates conspiracies which include using weapons against its own citizens. We have a regime that has become ill.
This situation must change at once. The solution is to urgently amend laws that exempt the army from civilian supervision and to create a new constitution that will restructure the high judiciary.
