Etiket junta

Niyazi Dalyancı Whether a document containing plans to undermine the government allegedly written by a colonel at the headquarters of the Turkish General Staff is authentic evidence of the presence of a junta within the officer ranks or a fabrication leaked to the media with the purpose of discrediting the armed forces, dominated the political agenda in the country for the past week. Latest reports indicate that the public might never learn where the truth lies. The public debate over the document was launched in full fervor after the Taraf newspaper published it last week claiming that it was found among the evidence seized at the office of a lawyer who is presently under arrest as one of the defendants of the Ergenekon trial where nearly 200 suspects including officers, university professors, journalists, lawyers and police chiefs are charged with setting up an armed terror organization to overthrow the elected government in Turkey. Scores of defendants including top ranking generals are presently under arrest. The document titled “Action Plan for the Struggle Against Religious Radicalism” and dated as recently as April 2009, targets both the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and the so-called Fethullah Gulen community, that has become increasingly influential in the country’s social and political scene in recent decades. The alleged plan includes a wide-range of measures, including “planting weapons, documents and material” that would point to illegal activities at houses used by the community, launching a media campaign discrediting the government and claiming that officers arrested under Ergenekon have been imprisoned because of their activities against radical Islam. The campaign plan is also aimed at accusing the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government of leading Turkey towards a society run according to Islamic Sharia law. It also mentions plans to implant agents within AKP to create […]