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Officer's letter: Plot order came from Gen. Hasan Iğsız
Iğsız was serving as the deputy chief of general staff at the time. “In accordance with a directive by [then-Deputy Chief of General Staff] Gen. Hasan Iğsız, necessary work was initiated by Lt. Gen. Mehmet Eröz and Maj. Gen. Mustafa Bakıcı, and the action plan was prepared by Col. Dursun Çiçek,” reads the letter.
The letter also claims that the leak of the plot to the press created panic within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). “When the action plan was first published in a Turkish daily, Taraf, Maj. Hicri Dinçerol inquired of Col. Çiçek how it was leaked to the press. Then all computers were cleared [of all documents,] and all documents were destroyed. … The General Staff was informed about the leak to the press at around 4:30 a.m. Maj. Gen. M. Mutlu Arıkan asked Col. Çiçek about the leak. When the colonel said it was not him who had prepared the action plan, Arıkan said: ‘I can show you hundreds of such documents. Tell me how it was leaked!’ No court decision was taken at that time. Nor was anyone detained or interrogated. No serious effort was exerted to prove the existence of the action plan,” asserts the letter.
According to the officer, the colonel involved was not subjected to any serious interrogation. “Col. Çiçek’s house was raided five days after the action plan found its way into the media, but only for show. Capt. İ. Volkan Şahin, a military judge, spent five or six hours in the house but did not conduct a search. When the captain returned to the Information Support Unit, he said, ‘This is the way we protect our staff.’ Similarly, 40 bags of documents were destroyed in a paper shredder and then burned. All staff participating in the operation were warned [not to leak any information about the destruction of documents,]” continues the letter.
The officer also claims that a group of experts was formed within the TSK to prove that the action plan was not prepared at General Staff headquarters. The experts worked to prove that the plan does not conform to the writing styles of the staff.
“Shortly afterwards, an order was forwarded to members of the army [by Gen. Hasan Iğsız] on the security of correspondence. In accordance with this order, no names or titles would be put on correspondence via e-mail; no document would bear a genuine signature or an electronic signature if it is to be sent via e-mail; the number of computers [open to use] in the General Staff headquarters would be reduced,” the letter goes on to say.
The officer said what made him write the letter was the efforts of the TSK to refute the existence of such an army plot. “What is discreditable about this issue is a press conference called by our chief of General Staff, who called the plot ‘a piece of paper’ in a very humiliating manner instead of giving proper responses to the questions in people’s minds,” noted the officer.
The officer also said he was ready to testify as a witness in the investigation of the plot.
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