Why do the Military's Statements Fall Short of Being Convincing?

The developments concerning the document titled the "plan to finish off the AK Party [Justice and Development Party] and [Fethullah] Gülen," disclosed by the Taraf newspaper, have entered a new phase with the statement made on Wednesday by the General Staff.

This statement says the document in question was not prepared at their headquarters and that there are no grounds for further prosecution as the document in question is a photocopied one. The dossier concerning this investigation was sent to a civilian prosecutor. But the general public does not seem to be convinced by what they see. If the document is a photocopied one, where is the original, then? It is said that it was not prepared at the headquarters of the General Staff, can it be that it was prepared at another department of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), then? Despite the fact that there is a similarity in signatures, it is said that there is no need to prosecute Col. Dursun Çiçek. How can the military prosecutor be convinced so quickly?

Since the ban on the publication of the document's content is still in force, the significance of this document cannot be sufficiently emphasized. However, the plan contains a number of conspiracies such as creating an Alevi-Sunni conflict, raiding the houses of innocent people after secretly planting weapons there and trying to expose them as terrorists and attempting to overthrow the democratically elected government.

Ergenekon's supporters, including the Republican People's Party (CHP) in particular, are trying to create an occasion for polarization out of this matter once again.

What personally depresses me the most is that the General Staff has failed to show a clear and determined stance concerning democracy. What is the basic discussion? What is the essence of this Ergenekon trial? It is the expression of uneasiness about the existence of pro-coup military officers within the TSK who have been continually meddling with democracy for 60 years and who want to rule the country and who tirelessly try to manipulate and shape the nation. What do we see overall concerning the Ergenekon trial? There are retired or active military officers ranking from noncommissioned officers to the highest general involved. This is the naked truth. Given this, shouldn't it be the General Staff headquarters that has the greatest uneasiness about this and that must exert the greatest effort to get rid of this illegal structure?

It is OK that this should be done without discrediting the TSK. It is OK that this should be done without creating chaos. But it must certainly be done in the end. There must be no pretense, no deception in doing this. No one should assume unassigned duties for themselves and show signs of uneasiness about the presence of innocent people.

The question is clear: Will the TSK decide to purge its pro-coup members or not?

One may ask, "The chief of general staff made a promise during the press conference held on April 29. Isn't this sufficient?" No, this is not sufficient as we are not convinced. Why? Because during the same meeting, Gen. İlker. Başbuğ's opinion about the "coup diaries" of former Naval Forces Commander Adm. Özden Örnek had been asked, and he had replied: "Even the mere discussion of these concepts and words disturbs us. We, as the TSK, are respectful of democracy, a democratic regime and the rule of law. No one can perform actions against the existing democratic regime within the TSK, and no such person is allowed to be a member of the TSK. We will not allow this. For this reason, the TSK has no such internal problem about these issues. There is no need to investigate it further." The issue of coup diaries was also raised with former Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanit on April 12, 2007. Let me repeat his answer: "The General Staff does not have any documents concerning this issue. Let me repeat the same sentence. We do not have any documents of an official nature. We will wait for the judicial process. As you might remember, Özden Örnek said the diaries do not belong to him."

But very soon after he made this statement ― actually three days later ― papers ran the following story:

"According to the experts' report connected to the indictment of the Ergenekon case, the diaries that disclosed the coup attempts between 2003 and 2004 belong to Örnek. Four experts found that the source of the diaries was the computer of the 'Naval Commander' and its author was 'Adm. Örnek' and the person who made the last modification was 'Naval Forces Commander'."

No one should attempt to divert the matter and send it off course. Do we want the democratization of Turkey or not?

This is so simple.