THE PLOT SHADING BASBUG’S SPEECH
By Mehmet Yilmaz
Today’s Zaman
June 12 2009
Turkey
Taraf newspaper on Friday ran a headline that came many as extremely
horrifying. The news story connected with the headlines discloses
an action plan drafted by the Operations Department of the General
Staff which aims to plan conspiracies against the ruling Justice
and Development Party (AK Party) and Fethullah Gulen with a view to
portray them as potentially criminal in the eyes of the general public.
The plan prepared by the Senior Colonel Dursun Cicek talks about a
number of black propaganda move such as mobilizing the agents inside
the AK Party, defending the military officers who are defendants at
Ergenekon trial, preparing news stories about Greece and Armenia that
will create reactions among the people and that will help to expand
the voters base of the nationalist parties, and discrediting of the
popular TV serials such as Kurtlar Vadisi, Kollama and Tek Turkiye.
The plan was seized during a police search at the office of Serdar
Ozturk, who was the lawyer of retired colonel Levent GöktaÅ~_, who is
under arrest in connection with the Ergenekon investigation, (Ozturk,
too, was arrested several days ago) and it was prepared last April. The
plan heavily uses the concepts of "friendly" and "enemy" concepts
during the implementation of the activities envisaged thereunder.
The most heinous part of the plan consists of developing certain
conspiracy plots in order to charge innocent people with false
crimes. The following horrifying excepts are from this shameless plan:
– In the propagandas performed, it will be frequently noted that we
are not against religion.
– Actions will be planned without creating the impression that they
are changing the agenda of the Ergenekon trial, and the pro-religion
media will not be allowed to concentrate on this.
– We will create the impression that the supporters of Fethullah Gulen
are going too far and are directly attacking the Turkish Armed Forces
(TSK), and we will conduct activities that will make sure that even
conservative citizens will say, "This is too much. We are all Muslims,
but these supporters of Fethullah Gulen are making provocations in
order to attack on the TSK."
– Reactionaryist military officers and noncommissioned officers who
are in the category of unfavorable/suspicious will be reported to
involve in reactionaryism propaganda, and then news stories will
contracted to suggest that these people have immoral behaviors.
– As part of the operations against the reactionaryist TSK members,
intimidating propagandas will be conducted against those unidentified
reactionaryist TSK members in order to force them to make errors or
collapse on their own.
Documents allegedly prepared by a colonel on active duty have revealed
that the TSK had a systematic plan to damage the image of the AK
Party government and the Gulen movement in the eyes of the public.
– During the raids against the Light Houses to be conducted under
the military penal code, weapons, ammunitions, plans, and other
materials will be arranged to be seized so that the Fethullah Gulen
group is described as a armed terrorist organization or Pro-Fethullah
Terrorist Organization (FTO) and the investigations concerning it
will be conducted under the military jurisdiction.
It is really saddening to see that an institution whose primary
duty is to ensure the security of Turkey and Turkish people ignores
completely laws and thinks about how to manufacture crimes against
innocent people and and attempts to implement a plan to this end.
It is grievous… This is because the plot in question manufactures
crimes in order to portray innocent people as guilty in the eyes of
the general public and before the law.
The plot in question intends to help people culpable for military
crimes in order to mobilize the military judiciary.
It aims to employ the military judiciary in order to deprive people
of their right of defense.
Then?
Then, everything will be easier.
The media organizations will step in to launch a black propaganda
against Fethullah Gulen Group in order to defame them in the eyes of
the general public and convict them at the military courts.
How?
Through plots to present them as members of a terrorist organization.
Why should an organization seek to undertake such an action plan?
In 2000, then State Security Court (DGM) prosecutor Nuh Mete Yuksel
launched a case against Fethullah Gulen Hocaefendi on charges of
establishing an illegal organization. At the end of the eight-year-old
case, he was acquitted. Upon objections, the General Criminal Chamber
of the Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the acquittal decision.
Thus, it turned out that all the crimes attributed to Gulen were
just libels.
Why do they need to resort to conspiracies in order to revert an
acquittal decision given by civilian courts after a litigation process
of eight years?
Does this mean that the military courts are fairer? Is it because
they do not want to take the crimes they will manufacture to the
civilian courts?
Who can attempt to place weapons and ammunitions to the houses of
innocents students to find them later just to accuse them of being
members of a fabricated terrorist organization? Can we consider these
people as patriotic in their efforts to defame those innocent students?
I hope that the General Staff will do whatever is required about this
plot that has created great suspicions about the TSK.
Otherwise, they will be deprived of the legitimacy in the eyes of the
general public for their efforts to defend some retired or active
military officers who had involved in some illegal activities by
resorting to the principle of presumption of innocence against the
evidence obtained by prosecutors, the arsenals uncovered, and the
charges made under the Ergenekon investigation.
Similarly, their complaints that there is a systematic opposition
that aims to weaken the TSK will never be heard.
The speeches given by Chief of General Staff Gen. Ä°lker BaÅ~_bug
on April 14 at the War Academies Command and on April 29 at the
Headquarters of the General Staff and which were described as
intellectually high must have been considerably overshadowed by
this plan.
I hope that he will soon announce that those who prepared this plan
will never attain their goals and that he will be rebuke those who
consider majority of the nation and the government as "enemy."
Until then, his statement that no one that undertakes activities
against the existing democratic regime will be allowed to stay within
the TSK will not be convincing.