Junta planned for its own government after military coup

The new government would be led by Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) Chairman Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, according to the Taraf daily. The new government was part of a subversive coup plan titled the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) Security Operation Plan. The document was drafted in March 2003, shortly after the AK Party came to power. The masterminds of the plan were retired Gen. Çetin Doğan, the then-commander of the 1st Army, former Air Forces Commander Gen. İbrahim Fırtına and retired Gen. Ergin Saygun.

If the pro-coup wing within the armed forces, frequently referred to as the “junta,” had managed to put the plan into operation, the AK Party government would have been overthrown and replaced by the junta’s planned government, called the “National Agreement Government.”

In accordance with the Sledgehammer plan, TOBB’s Hisarcıklıoğlu would be nominated as prime minister. Former Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Hikmet Çetin, former Health Minister Yıldırım Aktuna and former Parliament Speaker Necmettin Karaduman would become deputy prime ministers.

Among other ministers would be former deputy Mehmet Seyfi Oktay (justice), retired Gen. Kemal Yavuz (defense), former State Minister İsmet Sezgin (interior), the late politician İsmail Cem (foreign affairs), former minister Zekeriya Temizel (finance), former head of the Higher Education Board (YÖK) Kemal Gürüz (education), former deputy Ömer İzgi (public works), former İstanbul University Rector Kemal Alemdaroğlu (health), former deputy Işın Çelebi (transportation), former Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan (agriculture), CHP İstanbul deputy and Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions (Türk-İş) Chairman Bayram Meral (labor), former Deputy Prime Minister Hüsamettin Özkan (industry and commerce), former State Minister Rüştü Kazım Yücelen (energy and natural resources), former minister İstemihan Talay (culture), former minister Eyüp Aşık (tourism), former minister Hikmet Uluğbay (forestry) and CHP İstanbul deputy Nur Serter (environment).

Other state minister posts would be occupied by Süheyl Batum, Mehmet Moğultay, Mehmet Nuri Yılmaz and Türkan Saylan.

The program of the National Agreement Government, however, would be drafted by coup generals, not the new Cabinet.

A section of the Sledgehammer plan was dedicated to the “introduction” of motives that would lead to a military takeover in the country. According to this section, the coup would be the result of efforts by internal and external enemies of Turkey who worked to undermine the territorial and national integrity of the republic entrusted by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish Republic.

Hisarcıklıoğlu held a press conference yesterday during which he lashed out at the Taraf report. He complained that he had long been considered a supporter of the AK Party government and, out of nowhere, it was announced that he would have been the prime minister of a coup government.

The TOBB chairman said he learned about the Sledgehammer coup plan from the media, adding that he would seek legal redress against the reports that portrayed him as a coup proponent. “I have never sided with any movement other than democracy. … Some people may dream about a coup d’état. But I will not even exist in dreams in which there is no democracy. I will not exist in a place where the public does not exist,” he remarked.

Red card to Islamic headscarf

The coup plan aimed to increase pressure on the use of the Islamic headscarf by the country’s conservative women. According to the plan, the coup plotters were determined to protect the country against any domestic and foreign threat and from the “abuse of the nation’s religious sensitivities” for political motives and in a way to discredit the principles of Atatürk. “All precautions will be taken to prevent the transformation of the turban [headscarf] into a political symbol and use of the scarf in the public sphere and state institutions,” read the plan.

The document also mentioned a plan to reform the country’s legal system in accordance with the “contemporary needs of the century.” As part of efforts to that end, necessary measures would be taken to enable jurists to give verdicts based on the principles of the Constitution and other laws; necessary legislation would be enacted to strengthen the impartiality of the judiciary; the judicial system would be restructured; and the internal and external security of prisons would be ensured by the gendarmerie.

The Sledgehammer Security Operation Plan concerned the country’s Kurdish population as well, as it aimed to settle the decades-old Kurdish question through “its own methods.”

The plan argued that the main reason behind the country’s Kurdish question was geographic and economic. The question could be settled through the improvement of agricultural and animal husbandry policies in the country’s eastern and southeastern regions, according to the plan. The document also suggested that a further activation of the village guard system in the regions would help settle the Kurdish issue.

Turkey first implemented the village guard system on March 26, 1985. The number of village guards rose to about 80,000 during the 1990s, when terrorist attacks increased. About 5,000 village guards have stood trial on charges including terrorism, human rights violations and smuggling, and many of them have been found guilty. Based on these figures, human rights associations argue that the system should be abolished.

Even greater budget for weapons

The coup plan envisaged an increase in the budget allocated to the armed forces for the purchase of new weaponry and for the lodgings of members of the military. The increased budget would help modernize the country’s defense system and protect Turkey against internal and external threats, according to the document.

A plan for the improvement of the country’s education system was also included in the Sledgehammer document. Each student would be obliged to complete an uninterrupted 11 years of education. The main philosophy of the education system would be to raise a contemporary population which is loyal to the principles of Atatürk and his republic. All schools, private and state, would be subject to a strict control mechanism that would prevent the concealment of people in those institutions who are engaged in activities of reactionaryism.

The coup plan also suggested the taking over of all private universities by the state, which would put an end to the private university system.

Goodbye to EU, IMF, World Bank

Instigators of the Sledgehammer coup plan continued in the document to lash out at government policies pursued for Turkey’s full membership in the European Union and economic cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

The document argued that the EU, the IMF and the World Bank were aiming to cause greater damage to Turkey than the Treaty of Sèvres. Against the government’s economic policies based on liberalism, the document suggested statism.

“Our economy experienced the greatest contraction in its history in 1999. The IMF imposed even greater conditions on Turkey than the Treaty of Sèvres under an ‘additional letter of intent’ in exchange for the money it would lend Turkey, and those conditions were, unfortunately, accepted. The economy bodies of the state were rendered ineffective due to ‘high interest rates,’ ‘internal debt,’ ‘external debt’ and ‘foreign currency pressure’,” argued the plan.

The plan also declared war against international holdings and companies functioning in Turkey. “The name and address of the capitalist method of exploitation in our day is international companies. Around 60 percent of world trade is in the hands of 500 big companies. There is almost no holding in our country that is not partner to an international company,” it complained.

The document also envisaged the expropriation of the assets and financial resources of groups and individuals suspected of involvement in activities of reactionaryism and separatism.