Turkey has been discussing this document since June 12. According to the news published first in the Taraf newspaper, a group of military officers working within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) had devised a “sordid conspiracy” against the AK Party. According to this conspiracy, some events would be set up in order to discredit the ruling party in the eyes of the general public. For instance, several “agents” would be found within the party and by working on them, the impression that the party is going split would be created. Another target of this conspiracy was the “Fethullah Gülen movement.” According to the plan, some people with weak characters would appear on TV programs and wage a smear campaign against Gülen. It was said that some people who appear to have religious appearances were identified as “backup forces” to be deployed as reinforcement in this campaign. The most terrible of all, according to this document seized from an Ergenekon defendant, was that it was arranged that some houses where students of the Gülen movement collectively live, which are called “light houses,” were to be searched and weapons and ammunition were to be seized. It was horrendous. Can the state lay traps against a political party for which millions of people voted and against a civil society movement which is loved by many people? Yes, according this document which the police seized.However, many controversies followed the disclosure of the document. Until the development which occurred last week. Turkey was shaken by shocking news. It was said the original of the “Plan to Finish the AKP and Fethullah Gülen,” which we have been discussing for several months, had been sent to the prosecutor. This original document, which was sent to the prosecutors conducting the Ergenekon investigation, has been examined by forensic experts and it has been found that the signature on the document is the genuine signature of Col. Dursun Çiçek. The military officer who sent the original of the document, accompanied with a letter containing some disclosures, said: “Everything was destroyed. I could salvage only this document.” This is truly a turning point for Turkish democracy. It is a turning point, not only for the Turkish democracy, but also for the Turkish press. Why?
The photocopy of the document in question had been seized from the office of lawyer Serdar Öztürk, who had been arrested during the course of the Ergenekon investigation. Öztürk was a retired lieutenant. Öztürk claimed that this document was planted in his office by the police. Some media organizations saw this claim as a great opportunity to discredit the document and built their stories on it. Then, the camera images taken by the police in the company of the defendant’s lawyer, showing the police raid from beginning to end were disclosed. Thus, those who lent unconditional support to Ergenekon were deprived of their footing.
Three days after the document was seized, the military prosecutor made a scandalous decision. Noting that he had not yet received the document in question, the military prosecutor declared that the document was a fake. It was a funny, yet pitiable attempt; the military prosecutor’s statement said the document is fake and “it has been concluded it was not prepared by the TSK.” How could the military prosecutor arrive at such a conclusion without ever seeing the document? Anyway... Our media organizations saw this as an opportunity to publish another wave of stories based on this decision. Thus, they blundered once again.
While all of these events were happening, the document underwent scientific examinations in order to find out whether it was altered or fake. All of these examinations showed that the signature on the document was the same as the signature of Col. Çiçek. The military officials did not initiate any investigation into the colonel. This resistance shook the public’s confidence in the TSK, but either the military officials failed to grasp it or there was something that they were hiding. Eventually, the colonel was forced to go to the court. Col. Çiçek executed a completely different signature at the Military Prosecutor’s Office and claimed that the signature on the document did not belong to him. Yet the civilian prosecutors put forward 20 signatures that belong to the colonel and it became clear that he was trying to deceive the judicial authorities. The colonel had changed his signature at the Military Prosecutor’s Office. This was a big scandal in itself. There was not only an ethical problem, but he had also committed a crime which is clearly defined in the law.
An arrest warrant was issued on the available evidence and he was eventually arrested. However, in a suspicious move, the İstanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office appointed a judge from the 13th High Criminal Court to the 14th High Criminal Court at the last minute and Çiçek was released before he had even spent 24 hours in jail. There was apparently a great rush to release him. Some papers ignored the fact that he was arrested in the first place and portrayed his release as an acquittal decision. This was done by the media. I do not know what incentives they might have had or whether they were trying to disturb certain groups, but this attitude was proof that either they did not know what legal terms mean or they were intentionally trying to acquit him. Their efforts became so out of control that even some prestigious TV channels (unfortunately, this includes such an important channel as NTV) referred to this “sordid conspiracy” as the “document to fight reactionaryism.” It was as if the TSK had prepared a document to combat reactionaryism and pressure was being applied on those who had prepared it. Yet, the situation was very grave; it was claimed that the state had set up a trap against the nation.
Meanwhile, some empty remarks were made during the press conferences the General Staff held for accredited journalists. The media organizations ran to add fuel to the fire in an attempt to support the proposition the military prosecutor had made: “Whoever leaked the document should be caught.” OK. The person who leaked it should be found, but first, the people who are responsible for the document must stand trial so that punishing the person who leaked the document becomes meaningful. There were columnists who were penning articles with the drive of possessing the unbearable weight of being accredited. Some even directly mentioned my name and the name of the editor-in-chief of the Star newspaper -- thereby making us open targets -- and made big remarks as if the document was absolutely found to be fake. I don’t know whether they blushed a bit when the authenticity of the document was confirmed.
Politics has been severely tested since the emergence of this document. Should the party who acts as the lawyer of Ergenekon apologize to the people now that the authenticity of the document has been verified? The Republican People’s Party (CHP) should apologize. But not only the CHP, those journalists and columnists who penned news stories or articles under the direction of military resources and without taking into consideration the criminal reports should apologize as well. Also, certain journalists who tend to complain that their fellow journalists are undermining the “secrecy of the investigation” should apologize because they gave implicit support to the conspiracy by not writing about its most crucial part and furthermore, they made their colleagues who did this targets. The Turkish officer who said: “Everything was destroyed. I could salvage only this document,” by placing emphasis on the rule of law, prevented an incorrect record from being etched into history. It is obvious that we need honorable journalists who can say “we were wrong on this issue.”
What will the chief of General Staff do now?
No one knows the reason why, but Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ has believed the document is a fake since the moment it was revealed and has shared this opinion with the public. This is a big risk to take for someone who is in charge, especially if this person is in charge of a 2,000-year-old army. The general’s haste to dismiss the case despite having a legal obligation to look into it and investigate the document, asking “just what if it is true?” suggests one of two things, misinformation or mismanagement of the crisis by Başbuğ.
He went down this path knowing how much importance the prime minister attached to the situation. He chose to unwaveringly deny the document calling it a “piece of paper” although the AK Party filed a complaint with the civilian judiciary and launched an investigation. Even worse, Başbuğ put pressure on the state’s inherent structure and went against common practice. What is common practice? If there is suspicion about a government official, that person is immediately removed from their current duties until the investigation has been completed and public reaction is resisted “for the safety of the investigation.” This is how an administrative investigation works. The course of a criminal investigation is different. Even when there is a serious allegation made against a school director working in the farthest part of Turkey the same practice is applied. First, the person is temporarily removed from his duties. Then an investigator is assigned to the case and an investigation is conducted to determine the facts. The chief of general staff did not do this. Instead he ensured the colonel -- who was initially arrested for allegedly undersigning the document that caused uproar in the country and later dubiously released pending trial -- would continue in his duties. In other words, he was never removed from office. The General Staff has done the same in other cases, but it is wrong. The same legal process that is applied to civilians who are the subject of serious accusations should be applied to military personnel as well. Otherwise, this will lead to serious concerns and doubts about the protection of suspects. The statement released by the TSK on Saturday does not explain the gist of the issue and unfortunately doesn’t appear to be very convincing either.
Now that they have the original document, what Başbuğ will do next is very important. Since this country is not a banana republic, the chief of general staff must conform to the legal process. Actually, since the original copy is out, Başbuğ needs to tell us whether there were other signatures are on it, because during the debates about the photocopied version, experts insistently argued that the document could not have been prepared by just one colonel. Once we have a view of the full picture, Başbuğ’s position will become clearer.
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