‘Secret constitution’ at the heart of the Sledgehammer coup plan

The MGSB, also known as the “Red Book,” has been under the spotlight since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a remark questioning its legitimacy last week. The document, which is known as Turkey's “secret constitution,” lies behind many military interventions as it enables the military to plot against governments.

On Jan. 26, Prime Minister Erdoğan, who met with the governors of various provinces, said: “Seeing one's own citizens as a threat, categorizing them into different camps and devising plots to that end are things from another century. This is not worthy of a modern country or an advanced understanding of democracy.” The prime minister was referring to the Sledgehammer Security Operation Plan, a plot devised inside the military in 2003 to instigate a coup d'état by creating chaos through acts such as placing bombs at the Fatih Mosque during Friday prayer. Other similar documents planning unspeakable atrocities have come to light as part of an investigation into Ergenekon.

In fact, copies of the MGSB have been found in a safe belonging to Kasım Zengin, who was arrested for being the leader of the Sauna crime gang -- a gang that blackmailed bureaucrats and senior administrators using images or recordings of them in inappropriate situations -- which was later revealed to have links with Ergenekon. A copy of this document was also found along with other top secret military documents in retired Capt. Muzaffer Tekin’s house in Kadıköy. Tekin is one of the main suspects in the Ergenekon investigation. Another key suspect in the case, retired Gen. Veli Küçük, who has been in prison since January 2008, also had a copy of this document -- which should only be accessible to a few top administrators in the country -- in his house.

The MGSB, drafted by military officials, was last updated after the Feb. 28, 1997 process, which started when the military staged an unarmed intervention, leading to the fall of a coalition government led by an Islamist party. In the update, ultra-nationalism was removed from the list of threats to national security, whereas religious reactionaryism, separatism and the extreme left were listed as priority national security concerns. Retired Gen. Adnan Tanrıverdi, who once served in the Special War Department, says ultra-nationalism was taken out of the list to make way for movements that are neo-nationalist, or ulusalcı in Turkish. On Oct. 14, 2005, the Cumhuriyet daily, known for its neo-nationalist line, published details of this top secret document. According to Cumhuriyet’s report, the Red Book is made up of three parts. The first section includes the fundamentals of the document and emphasizes that the document’s main purpose is to draw up a security policy for Turkey. The scope of the document is described as deciding on the measures necessary to ensure the national security of the Republic of Turkey, making successful predictions about steps to be taken in this direction and deciding on the fundamentals of both internal and foreign security policy. The document refers to Article 118 of the Constitution and Law No. 2945 on the National Security Council (MGK) and its general secretariat.

Religious reactionaryism fundamental threat

Religious reactionaryism, ethnic separatism and extreme leftist movements are listed as the three most dangerous threats to Turkey’s security in the Red Book. Nationalist and neo-nationalist organizations are also seen as elements of domestic threats. Religious reactionaryism was perceived as the biggest threat by the writers of various coup d’état plans that have been exposed in the past, such as the Sledgehammer plan.

In the sections about internal security, the MGSB also lists organizations that are deemed to be “friends,” defined as “civil society organizations whose targets overlap with the fundamental establishment principles of Turkey.” These include the Atatürkist Thought Association (ADD) and the Support for Modern Life Association (ÇYYD), both of which have been implicated in the Ergenekon investigation. In many coup plots that have been exposed since 2000, the importance of good relations with like-minded civil society groups is also emphasized.

The MGSB also lists Christian missionaries as a potential threat. The MGSB says, “A social effort needs to be conducted to prevent such ideologies from taking root in society.” These phrasings bring to mind recent shady murders that are believed to be linked to Ergenekon, such as the killing of an Italian priest in Trabzon 2006, the murder of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007 and the brutal killings of three Bible publishers in Malatya also in 2007. In addition to these murders, a number of atrocious plans to assassinate non-Muslim public figures have been uncovered during the Ergenekon investigation.