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Credibility of plot deniers decreases with military acknowledgement
The General Staff announced the new development in a statement posted on its Web site on Monday. The General Staff also announced on Monday that a military prosecutor had demanded the arrest of Col. Dursun Çiçek.
The General Staff Military Court, however, refused to arrest the colonel. An investigation into the plot is under way at the military prosecutor’s office.
The General Staff’s announcement immediately called to mind those who lodged a strong denial of the plot’s authenticity, including Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ, who harshly denied the plot after it was exposed.
During a press conference at General Staff headquarters a week after the publication of the plot in June of last year, Başbuğ termed the alleged plan “a piece of paper” and urged a civilian court to find out who was behind the document outlining the plot, which he said was aimed at discrediting the image of the military. “We believe this piece of paper was prepared with the aim of damaging and defaming the Turkish Armed Forces [TSK]. Now it rests on the shoulders of the state’s relevant judicial bodies to find out by whom and for what reason it was prepared,” said an angry Başbuğ at the briefing held on June 26, 2009.
Journalist Tezkan: I feel deceived In fact, several reports have established the authenticity of the document since it was first made public. A report prepared by three experts at the İstanbul Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) showed that the signature appearing on the original copy of the plot belonged to Col. Çiçek. The ATK report verified previous reports from the Gendarmerie General Command’s Criminal Investigation Department and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK). Although the authenticity of the document appeared to be valid, some media organizations seemed to treat the document as not authentic during the period following the exposure of the document. They appeared to have been relieved with every statement by the military that denied the plot. For example, one newspaper that initially completely ignored the story was the Habertürk daily, whose deputy editor-in-chief last June noted his relief to hear that the General Staff had announced that the alleged action plan was not prepared by any department of the General Staff and that the TSK respects the rule of law. “The TSK’s explanation is a development that provides relief. I wish they had made it three days ago. The TSK would not draft such a document. The plot could have been devised by anyone. The important thing is whether the TSK approves of the document as a whole. If so, the prime minister’s words about taking action are fine,” Doğan Satmış wrote in his column on June 15. An acknowledgment came yesterday from one of the journalists who had doubts about the authenticity of the plot, Milliyet daily columnist Mehmet Tezkan. “I feel like I was deceived. While I was thinking that the General Staff was engaged in performing their job [related to the military profession], they are engaged in other things by deceiving me or cooperating with unsavory characters,” he said in his televised remarks. Tezkan also criticized Gen. Başbuğ for his earlier remarks. “He shouldn’t have said this was a piece of paper,” Tezkan said. However, Cüneyt Ülsever from the Hürriyet daily, who previously wrote in his column that he could not totally figure out the Çiçek case, told Today’s Zaman that he does not agree with Tezkan. “I still cannot figure out how a person who is charged with being a coup plotter, which is a serious crime, is not arrested,” he says. |
He was referring to the Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism, which was first published by the Taraf daily earlier in June. The alleged action plan bears the signature of Col. Çiçek and describes a plot to bring down the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the faith-based Gülen movement by framing individuals via planting weapons in their homes and manufacturing false news stories.
The chief of General Staff underlined several times that the alleged plot had been created by certain circles to undermine and besmirch the TSK.
“We see this as part of an organized smear campaign to weaken the military. This is an attempt to stir up and divide the military. As the commander of the armed forces, I am telling you very clearly: Take your hands off the armed forces and stop defining your political position in the armed forces. Stop carrying out an asymmetrical psychological campaign against the armed forces in the media,” he remarked.
The army chief also then offered a guarantee that the TSK would not allow any of its personnel who violated the principles of “democracy and the rule of law” to remain within its ranks. “The military does not shelter those who would engage in coup activities. I give my guarantee as the chief of the TSK,” he said
Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal was also among those who demonstrate the greatest skepticism of the plot. According to Baykal, the plot was a conspiracy against the military. “They are trying to portray the AK Party as a victim, as usual. You are not even considering the possibility that the document is not authentic. If it is not fake, why was it prepared and given to Taraf, for what purpose? If the document’s authenticity is not established, this would mean the collapse of the indictment in the Ergenekon case [an investigation into a coup-plotting gang through which the action plan document was discovered],” Baykal said.
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