[Event of the week] Military prosecutor’s indictment of Col. Çiçek raises questions

Many observers said they found the indictment neither sound nor convincing and that they believe the document mainly seeks to put the blame for the subversive plan on the now-jailed colonel and exonerate high-profile military and civilian instigators behind the plot of all charges so that the military parties can be promoted at this year’s Supreme Military Council (YAŞ) meeting.

Observers also focused on the indictment’s argument that the “disclosure” of the action plan to a newspaper was by Çiçek himself. According to the indictment, Çiçek did so in order to have the plan find wide coverage in the media to attain his objective of undermining the Turkish military.

The argument fully matches earlier claims of an unidentified military officer who reportedly sent the original version of the Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism to the Taraf daily in June of last year. The officer attached a letter to the document in which he warned that the General Staff would pursue a strategy to place the blame for the plot on Çiçek and have the issue covered up.

According to the letter, the General Staff would place the blame for the plot on Çiçek if it failed to persuade the public that the document was false. All phases mentioned in the letter have been completed.

 In a move to discuss the country’s most challenging issues, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent letters to leaders of political parties requesting a meeting, a move mostly welcomed by the leaders except for two opposition parties, to whom the prime minister did not send a letter. “I would like to visit Your Excellency at 4 p.m. on July 14 or 15 together with three colleagues to exchange views on the issues of terrorism and the referendum,” Erdoğan’s letter read. The prime minister’s invitation, however, did not include Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahçeli or pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) leader Selahattin Demirtaş because, according to the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), they “benefit from terrorism.”

 July 11 Sunday

Leaders of Balkan nations, including Serbian President Boris Tadic, joined some 50,000 grieving Bosnians as they gathered at a ceremony to bury the remains of 755 newly identified victims killed when Bosnian Serbs overran the eastern town of Srebrenica exactly 15 years ago. The Srebrenica massacre, later recognized as genocide by the UN, stands out as Europe’s worst massacre since World War II. On this day the burial site shone as the birthplace of a process of reconciliation that is hoped to bring lasting peace to the troubled Balkans.

The Felicity Party (SP) held its fourth grand party congress in Ankara where the party’s current leader, Numan Kurtulmuş, was the only candidate for leadership. In his speech Kurtulmuş emphasized the renewal of the party, saying change is the only means for improvement. In his address to the gathering, Kurtulmuş said: “This congress is a congress with which the SP will rear up. We are beginning a new period starting today. We will walk to power with a new political style. We have to improve, but also retain our core supporters from before.”

 July 12 Monday

Opposition parties’ vows to oppose the constitutional amendment package at the ballot box led Prime Minister Erdoğan to accuse those parties of working to hamper Turkey’s democratization process and to express his full confidence that the public will vote in favor of the amendments in the referendum, slated for Sept. 12.

While openly voicing bitterness over seeming US indifference to the fact that a US citizen, Furkan Doğan, was also killed during a May 31 Israeli attack on a civilian convoy in international waters, Prime Minister Erdoğan reiterated that Turkey has no intention of letting Israel get away with its “pirate-like” and “barbarous” attack which led to the death of civilians. On May 31, Israeli commandos killed one US national and eight Turkish peace activists when they boarded the Mavi Marmara, part of a six-vessel convoy that set out to challenge the blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israel’s attack triggered international outcry and further damaged Israel’s already strained ties with Turkey.

Turkey and Serbia signed a number of agreements on, including one on eliminating visa requirements, expanding cooperation between the two countries despite past tensions. “We have seen a firm political will to improve bilateral relations on both sides during meetings,” Prime Minister Erdoğan said at a joint news conference with his Serbian counterpart, Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, after meeting in Belgrade.

Dr. Hakan İnce, chairman of the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK), said the signature on an Action Plan to Fight Reactionarysm document belongs to Col. Dursun Çiçek. In an interview with the Newsweek Türkiye magazine, İnce made a statement that refuted claims by Çiçek’s attorneys that the signature had been produced by a signature machine.

 July 13 Tuesday

Prime Minister Erdoğan met with Democratic Left Party (DSP) leader Masum Türker, the first political party leader Erdoğan has met with to discuss the recent escalation of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) violence in the country. The meeting was held at DSP headquarters in Ankara. Türker welcomed Erdoğan at the door of the building. Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek, Interior Minister Beşir Atalay and Public Order and Safety Undersecretary Muammer Güler also attended the meeting, which lasted one-and-a-half hours.

An indictment prepared by the military prosecutor’s office stated that a suspected military plot prepared against the AK Party and the faith-based Gülen movement is authentic and is the product of the now-jailed Col. Dursun Çiçek, who allegedly wanted to “discredit” the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) after he was denied a promotion to admiral. The indictment was found “unconvincing” by most observers, who believe that the Turkish military is hoping to put an end to an ongoing civilian investigation into the plot and “save itself with the least damage.”

In remarks that do not come as a surprise, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli announced yesterday that his party will vote against the constitutional reform package in the Sept. 12 referendum on the grounds that the changes do not meet the demands of the nation but those of “outside forces.”

AK Party leader Erdoğan stated that he is confident that the government’s constitutional amendment package slated to go to a national vote on Sept. 12 will be passed in the referendum.

Rize Mayor Halil Bakırcı has been referred to the party’s disciplinary committee for expulsion from the AK Party over his remarks made at the end of June, when he said the country’s Kurdish question could be resolved if Turks take Kurdish women as second wives, the party’s deputy chairman, Hüseyin Çelik, said.

Parliament approved a bill seeking to change a law regulating the establishment of institutions of higher education, paving the way for the establishment of eight new universities throughout Turkey. Seven of them will be state universities while the eighth will be privately funded, according to the bill, which was approved at a late night session of Parliament.

 July 14 Wednesday

Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TÜSİAD) Chairwoman Ümit Boyner, who met with Prime Minister Erdoğan to discuss pressing issues concerning the country, said the association does not have a political view regarding the Sept. 12 referendum on a constitutional reform package.

Prime Minister Erdoğan, who had pledged to meet with leaders of all political parties to discuss the country’s most crucial issues, met with leaders of the Felicity Party (SP) and the Grand Unity Party (BBP).

Kemal Akın, the manager of an apartment building in İstanbul’s Kadıköy district who allegedly killed three people and injured one other in early July, was detained. Akın, 61, had been sought by the police after the murders.

July 15 Thursday

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Prime Minister Erdoğan met in Kılıçdaroğlu’s chambers in Parliament to discuss the escalation of terrorist violence in the country.

The top European human rights court refused to reconsider complaints that the jailed leader of the PKK had not received a fair trial in Turkey, rejecting an appeal against a 2007 decision by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers to close examination of the case. The European Court of Human Rights said in its reasoning for refusing the appeal by Öcalan’s lawyers that Turkey has met its obligations in implementation of a 2005 ruling regarding the trial of Öcalan, who is now serving a life sentence in prison on the island of İmralı in the Sea of Marmara for treason, the Anatolia news agency reported. With the unanimous decision, the court didn’t even need to ask Turkey to present its defense, the agency said.

A Turkish Air Forces officer who referred to PKK militants as “our own” and asked to shoot down Heron unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to protect the terrorists and who should have been court-martialed for treason is still serving in the military, the Bugün daily reported. According to the report, an air forces officer in wire communications asked a high-ranking air forces pilot to shoot down Herons or change their flight plans because they caused too much damage to PKK terrorists, who he spoke of as “ours.” The conversation took place on Oct. 10, 2007. An officer calling a mobile phone from a landline in Ankara said the Herons were very good at locating targets and that they caused a great deal of damage to his own men who were PKK militants. He said he would like the Herons to be downed or at least be given new coordinates. The commander on the other at the end of the line said, “We’ll take care of that.” The scandal broke out when the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) detected the conversation and informed the land forces Command.

Turkey’s budget deficit decreased by 33.5 percent in the first six months of 2010 over the same period of 2009, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek announced. Speaking at a press conference in Ankara, Şimşek said Turkey’s budget deficit amounted to TL 15.4 billion in the January-June period of the year. The minister said this figure accounted for 30.7 percent of the government’s budget deficit target for 2010. “This shows that we are doing well in closing the gap in our budget so far this year,” the minister explained.

An explosive device killed one Turkish soldier and wounded another when it exploded in the mountains close to Yalınca village in the eastern province of Van. The device is believed to have been planted by the terrorist PKK.

July 16 Friday

Five people, including one woman, were arrested in the western province of İzmir on charges of attacking municipal buses with stones and Molotov cocktails.