Erdoğan vows to follow plot probe through to the end

Speaking at his party's parliamentary group meeting yesterday, he said the purpose of what he called the document of “conspiracy against the nation” was to damage the reputation of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). He also said high-ranking generals in the army should not be conservative regarding the investigation, but do what they can to bring those responsible to justice.

“We cannot remain silent when we are faced with such a thing that concerns our party. … What we see here is that nothing is being covered up; the judicial process is working. Nothing will remain in the dark. But we cannot accept our institutions or the legal process being turned into targets. It is absolutely not right to damage the reputation of our honored institutions through a couple of suspects. The AK Party has not dropped these allegations, and it will not in the period ahead. It will try to carry out its responsibility. Whoever these people might be or wherever they might be, they should be found out.”

Meanwhile, AK Party Adana deputy Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat yesterday had harsh words to say about Col. Çiçek’s refusal to testify about the plan, which he appears to have signed, to civilian prosecutors conducting an ongoing probe into a clandestine group known as Ergenekon.

The colonel was expected to appear at the Beşiktaş courthouse in İstanbul to testify as part of a civilian investigation into the plan on Monday, but his lawyer announced on Monday afternoon that his client had received no notice from prosecutors or police about the testimony. Civilian prosecutors conducting the Ergenekon probe summoned a group of members of the military to testify about the plot last month. They also warned that police would use force to bring those officers to testify if they did not come voluntarily. Seven members of the military went to the Beşiktaş courthouse last week, but Col. Çiçek failed to do so. The colonel is believed to be one of the key figures in the plan controversy.

The AK Party’s Fırat said no one can run from the law indefinitely, noting, “You have to comply if you’ve been summoned by the judiciary.” Fırat said such incidents do not remain secrets in Turkey. “No one can dare take action against the state or the law anymore.” He also said he could not really “digest” what had been done against his party.

AK Party Ankara deputy Haluk Özdalga also released a written statement on the issue, saying every party, but primarily the TSK, should do their best to aid the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in the investigation. “Actions that might make the judicial process more difficult should be avoided,” he said. His statement also stressed that a profound change of mentality and functioning was needed in the administration of the military.

Çiçek will be taken to the prosecutor by force if he fails to testify by this Friday.

The plot to undermine the AK Party as well as the faith-based Gülen movement, titled the Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism, was first published by the Taraf daily on June 12. Çiçek was detained by civilian prosecutors on June 30, but released immediately since the document Taraf had was a photocopy of the original plot. After three-and-a-half months, the original document was sent to the prosecutor’s office by an officer on active duty. The prosecution first sent the document to the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK), which established that the signature did indeed belong to Çiçek. The prosecution summoned both Çiçek and six privates who, according to the letter of the officer who sent the original, helped destroy the computer on which the document was created. One of those privates has testified, but the other six have not. Other members of the military whose names were included in the letter -- Maj. Hicri Dinçerol, Col. Şükrü Kısadere, 2nd Lt. Kazım Bozkurt, 2nd Lt. Erhan Sakallı, 2nd Lt. Faith Karacaer, 2nd Lt. Berrin Şahin, 2nd Lt. Mustafa Urhan and civilian official Rıfat Sülük -- were also called to testify. These individuals testified on Oct. 30. Maj. Dinçerol is being treated as a suspect in the investigation, while the others are being treated as witnesses. In related developments, a voice recording allegedly of Ergenekon defendant Col. Hasan Atilla Uğur was published on various Web sites earlier this week. Uğur, known as the right-hand man of retired Gen. Levent Ersöz -- a prime suspect in the case -- is heard hurling insults at prosecutors and judges in the case.

On the recent incident, he says, “A civilian prosecutor can’t just call an officer on active duty by saying, ‘Come here,’ just like that.” He also threatened prosecutors, saying, “The minute they trip, we’ll be on their back.” In the voice recording, he says: “Let me tell you this much, this is not the entire judicial structure. There are such prosecutors and judges, not only [honorary Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals Sabih] Kanadoğlu, but many young people and, the minute these ones trip, they will be on their backs -- they are already. I will destroy them -- that judge and those prosecutors who prepared [the indictment].”