Niyazi Dalyancı
Dogfights over the Aegean would be intensified and if the Greeks fail to shoot down a Turkish air force jet, then a Turkish pilot would do it for them; bombs would be planted in two historical mosques during Friday prayers triggering mass demonstrations by Islamic fundamentalist men wearing beards and women in veil who will attack the Air Force Open Air Museum near the Ataturk airport hurling Molotov cocktails destroying the old aircraft on display there; military maneuvers would be held near the border with Greece leading to a hot confrontation with the Greek army and finally if the Turkish National Assembly does not approve putting the country under martial law the army would takeover the administration.
These are the elements of a contingent scenario of war games held at the 1st Army Headquarters in the Selimiye barracks in Istanbul from 5 to 7 March 2003, according to the Taraf newspaper continuing its revelations against the unlawful practices that the Turkish armed forces allegedly indulge in against what they believe as the Islamic oriented government.
For three days the newspaper serialized the horror scenario which also included names of bureaucrats and politicians who will be appointed to cabinet posts after the army takeover, also lists of journalists to be arrested and those who would be collaborated with under the new regime.
According to Taraf, an officer who was serving at the army headquarters in 2003 gave the newspaper the documents of the war games dubbed “Balyoz,” meaning sledgehammer in Turkish, totaling some 5,000 pages, also including audio tapes of the military seminar at which 162 officers, including top-ranking generals, participated.
Journalists of Taraf handed the CDs containing the evidence to Istanbul’s chief prosecutor who announced that he is opening an investigation into the allegations.
Meanwhile, retired general Cetin Dogan, commander of the 1st Army at the time of the March 2003 seminar, confirmed that “exercises against possible domestic and external threats were held in 2003 as part of the routine, covering the geographical area for which the 1st Army is responsible.” But he vehemently denied that an army takeover of the government was part of the plans.
“Treachery like shooting down an aircraft of the Turkish army, bombing holy places belong to the authors of the scenario created by the sick minds. Such scenarios have been done through copy and paste technique,” said Dogan appearing on a television news cast. He also denied the Taraf allegation that he has his signature under the plans.
However, he underlined that such exercises are conducted to test the armed forces’ preparedness against “domestic and external threats” including an Islamic fundamentalist uprising.
The General Staff Headquarters in Ankara also issued a written statement that the purpose of the seminar was to develop the operational plans against a possible external threat and train the related military personnel.
“In this seminar held at the responsibility area of the 1st Army, a scenario was used describing a situation of increasing tensions at a time of possible war and possible martial measures to safeguard the security of the hinterland,” the statement said.
“Nobody in his right mind and conscience can accept the allegations put forward in relation with this seminar. The purpose of this news is to serve those who want to create disturbance in the public,” the statement concluded.
Opinion makers not satisfied
However, both Dogan’s and the General Staff’s statements failed to satisfy the opinion makers in Turkey.
Retired general Dogan appeared on several television screens in the wake of Taraf’s revelations and defended himself, Milliyet’s influential commentator Mehmet Ali Birand wrote. “But in between the lines of his words and his attitude was not convincing. He openly put forward that he did not like the way Justice and Development Party (AKP) runs the country and that he thinks that the government is following a dangerous line,” Birand writes.
“I want to believe when the general says that elements like bombing mosques and shooting down our own aircraft have been inserted to the scenario later on. After the prosecutor’s investigation the matter will become clearer. Whatever the case is, the differences between what the Dogan Pasha has been saying and the limited statement coming from the General Staff did not escape the attention of the public opinion. In short, recent explanations were far from being credible,” says Birand in his column. Probably he was referring at the General Staff statement’s failure to mention the most controversial part of the plan, namely planting explosives at mosques and shooting down Turkish Air Force fighters.
Discrepancy between timing and alleged content of seminar
Commentators point out that the controversial 1st Army seminar was held during the week following the National Assembly’s rejection of the government proposal that Turkey allow U.S. troops use Turkish territory to move into Iraq from the north. Tayyip Erdogan was still under a political ban and remained out of the parliament while Abdullah Gul was serving as the country’s prime minister after the October elections in 2002 brought AKP to power.
In 1999 Erdogan had served four-month prison term for reciting a poem describing mosques as barracks and minarets as bayonets which the court ruled as “inciting enmity among the public.” He also had a five-year ban from politics imposed by the Constitutional Court because he led to the closure of the Welfare Party of Necmettin Erbakan by his statements violating the secular principles of the Constitution.
During the first week of March, 2003, a Constitutional Court ruling not related with Erdogan’s case was interpreted as lifting of his ban from politics and with the consent and cooperation of the main opposition Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP) he was elected to the parliament at a by-election in southeastern province of Siirt on
March 9.
Although he was not a member of AKP then, Erdogan personally asked AKP deputies to support the government measure to allow the American troops to be stationed on Turkish soil before the attack on Iraq. At the time, members of the parliament waited for a sign from the army whether the measure was acceptable for them or not. But the armed forces preferred to keep silent. Finally, the measure was rejected angering the Bush administration in Washington that was keeping loads of troops onboard navy ships in the Mediterranean expecting to land in the southern Turkish port of Mersin.
Abdullatif Sener, once a member of Erdogan’s inner-circle who parted ways with him just before the July 2007 elections says, “If the measure had passed in the parliament at that time there would be neither Erdogan nor AKP now.” At a television debate, Sener who also served as deputy prime minister under Erdogan commented that the failure of the U.S. operation in Iraq and Turkish soldiers coming back home in flag draped coffins would have swept Erdogan and AKP from power in the 2007 elections at the latest.
Hurriyet’s columnist Cuneyt Ulsever also shares Sener’s views.
“If the measure had been endorsed by the Grand National Assembly, Erdogan let alone being a hero as he is today in the Middle East, would be reduced to a difficult situation visa vis his electorate. If Turkish soldiers dying in Iraq had reached large numbers, Erdogan would fall into disfavor completely; and at a time of war the influence of army commanders would increase two-fold,” writes Ulsever.
The military kept its silence while all the “uncommon” processes unraveled in order to bring Erdogan into parliament and install him in the prime minister’s office, Ulsever points out, referring to the by-election and rather singular interpretation of the Constitutional Court ruling that lifted the political ban on him.
“There is one question that bothers my mind. During that time while there were easier methods to put Erdogan in a difficult position or prevent his crowning, why did certain people within the Turkish armed forces take the 5,000-page trouble of shooting down their aircraft or bombing the mosques?” asks Ulsever.
