Perhaps he’s found himself a more practical and riskless new method. Recently, the General Staff has extended an invitation to journalists labeled “beneficial” in military junta documents and has set aside record amounts of time for them to talk with them. (For example, at the last invitation, being so kind as to give up five hours of time to two of our fellow journalists from the same news outlet who arrived at 10:30 a.m.) I truly wonder, are there any high-level managers in this entire country -- let alone the managers of major companies, but even the manager of a moderately sized firm -- who can afford to set aside five hours of their time during work hours for even the foremost news outlet in the world? Even if they want to set aside such a long period of time, is this an efficient use of that manager’s time, and does the workload at the company allow for something like this? I really wonder.At any rate, this means that the work of Mr. Başbuğ, the highest ranking commander of the region’s biggest military, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), is rather on track, and there aren’t any problems in terms of time constraints concerning working hours. And it’s not bad, either. Perhaps Mr. Başbuğ is engaging in an act of great sacrifice by giving up the most precious hours of the day, but he’s also saving himself and the public from that enraged style of his, broadcast live and where it isn’t always clear who he’s even threatening. The new method that reaches news audiences in a roundabout method is much less threatening and comparatively much less destructive-seeming than the old tradition of appearing in front of the cameras from a battleship. But we can still observe by reading between the lines that it’s still not quite possible for Başbuğ to get very far away from that threatening air.
In his talk given to Murat Bardakçı and Fatih Altaylı from the Habertürk daily, which began being broadcast yesterday, Başbuğ can be seen frequently speaking about efforts to boost the morale of the military. For example, in one part of his remarks he says: “We do what must be done, and we will continue to do so. But these things harm the morale of my troops. I’ll fight against everyone who ruins the morale of my troops. Tomorrow [today] I’m going to Gölcük. To struggle against lowered morale.” From what can be understood of the parts of Başbuğ’s remarks that have been aired so far, the things that ruin the morale of the military seem to be the investigations and trials over the back-to-back revelations of documents related to coup plans and the connections of some retired and active officers with the Ergenekon terrorist organization and the mixing up of the names of military members with anti-democratic junta formations within the military.
Başbuğ reflexively denies categorically all the coup attempts, such as the Cage and Sledgehammer plans, which are now subjects of judicial investigations after they were exposed by the press, and obviously perceives every criticism about problems and mistakes inside the military as a criticism directed at the entire military institution. Naturally, his attitude toward all criticism, including criticism that is sound and justified, is formed according to his misperception. Past and painful examples show that this attitude is, unfortunately, accompanied by covering up the allegations instead of pushing on with the investigation to the end to vindicate the military. For example, despite scientific reports by the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) that the wet signature under an illegal military document devising a military plot against the government and civilians belongs to Col. Dursun Çiçek, the General Staff still denies that the signature belongs to him. The General Staff says it would like to see the original document. As such, it is trampling underfoot the reputation of a respected institution that acts scientifically for the sake of protecting the reputation of the military. The General Staff denies a key public institution in the application of justice the very sensitivity it shows for protecting the reputation of the military.
What Başbuğ doesn’t or doesn’t want to understand is this: Not a single citizen in this country would want for the military, which is responsible for security against external threats, to be torn apart or weakened. But he also wouldn’t like to see his army -- which he protects as fervently as if it were his own child, and for which he is ready to sacrifice all so that it would be strengthened -- as a focal point of organized crime that seeks to prepare the fertile grounds for a coup d’etat. For this reason, what Başbuğ should not do is categorically own up to every element of crime inside the military. It is high time that Başbuğ understands that the military, which has been losing its respectability in the eyes of the nation on a daily basis, cannot protect its reputation and image by throwing around accusations and threats, whose target is not clear. The nation today, for very rational reasons, thinks that some officers in the military have been involved in illegal activities, plotted to frame or kill innocent people for their own political purposes. All documents that constitute evidence to these claims are currently being processed by the judiciary.
The duty that falls upon Başbuğ is to be a helper during this judicial process instead of using all of the means at his disposal to cast a shadow over the process. For example, he needs to immediately abandon his defensive reflex to exert effort to influence the judicial process with regard to the explosives in a submarine on display at the Koç Museum, allegedly planned for use to kill children on a field trip in order to create chaos.
In the case that Başbuğ is truly worrying about the military’s esteem, morale and image, then he must understand by now that it won’t help to keep the TSK closed off from all civilian monitoring authorities. He must know that in a period where the global trend is toward increased transparency, only suspicion and no trust can be felt with regard to a military that doesn’t answer to the civilian administration, Parliament or state auditing institutions, that in its actions does not betray any feeling of responsibility toward the public or the representatives of the public and which never comes anywhere near accounting for its actions.
And, of course, in the case that Mr. Başbuğ is truly fretting over the military’s esteem and morale, he must lead the effort to bring the military and generals to the place where they are supposed to be, as is done in all civilized countries. For example, he could begin by bringing the place of the chief of general staff from its strange place in the Turkish state protocol -- which attracted attention once more at the last NATO meeting in İstanbul -- back to where it should be, as in other NATO countries.
