Col. Tapan is listed as one of the key suspects in the investigation into a subversive military coup plot against the government and religious segments of society prepared by Col. Dursun Çiçek. The indictment accepted by the Erzurum 2nd High Criminal Court last Monday also mentions Erzincan Chief Public Prosecutor İlhan Cihaner, 3rd Army Commander Gen. Saldıray Berk and 12 others including Col. Tapan as suspects. According to additional documents from the indictment, the plot was put into operation in the province after a visit by Col. Çiçek and retired Gen. Ergin Saygun in April 2009.
The documents also contain the transcript of a phone conversation between Tapan and his lawyer, Fatih Mehmet Yoğurtçu, which shows that Tapan’s legal expenses would be met by the Gendarmerie General Command. Tapan asks the lawyer in the record of the phone call dated Dec. 18, 2009 how much his lawyer will be paid, and the lawyer says he has the legal right for his legal expenses to be met by the state. When Tapan says he looked at the relevant regulation and that the state cannot pay the fee in his case, his lawyer says he talked the issue over with unidentified officials and that he was told OK. Yoğurtçu advises Tapan not to worry about the expense and says it would most likely be met by the command.
The lawyer also recalls that the General Staff previously paid the legal expenses of Kayseri Gendarmerie Brigade Commander Col. Cemal Temizöz, which could set a precedent for his case as well. Col. Temizöz is on trial over charges of killing at least 20 people and is known as the “death-well colonel”. Temizöz was the commander of the gendarmerie in Cizre between 1993 and 1995. At that time there were 55 unsolved murders in the area, but the people of the region strongly believed that all of them were orchestrated by Temizöz, who is under arrest but is still the Kayseri provincial gendarmerie battalion commander. Temizöz faces nine life sentences without the possibility of parole on charges of committing murder and establishing an organization with the aim of engaging in criminal activity. As Tapan’s lawyer allegedly said, the General Staff is known to have paid Temizöz’s legal expenses.
