ISTANBUL - Turkey's former navy, air force and 1st Army commanders were
arrested by Turkish police on Monday over seven-year-old plans that allegedly
aimed to create national chaos, undermine the government and lead to a military
takeover.
The retired soldiers are the highest-ranking officers ever arrested by the
Turkish police, with many Turks seeing this as a defining moment in the
country's civilian-military relations. Many army officers have been arrested
before, but none of this stature, and now even Turkey's most senior officers,
whether serving or retired, must consider themselves vulnerable to civilian
prosecution.
The arrests, which totaled 49 people, came two weeks after 5,000 pages of
documents and a number of CDs that detailed the alleged coup plan - leaked from
inside the military to a journalist
at the Turkish newspaper Taraf - were given to Turkish prosecutors.
According to Yasemin Congar, managing editor of Taraf, the leaked documents
detail "Sledgehammer", a plan that was drafted in December 2002 to early 2003.
The crux of the plan is outlined in pages 11-12 signed by Cetin Dogan, the
commander of the Turkey's 1st Army at the time. Dogan is currently being held
by Turkish police.
The "Sledgehammer" documents call the election victory of the still-ruling
Justice and Development Party (AKP) in November 2002 "a major step backwards"
in the army's struggle against Islamist politics. Some among the secular
establishment, particularly the military, believe that the AKP is leading the
country towards becoming an Islamic state. Turkey's military is devoted to
protecting the secular legacy of founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
In 1997 the military forced the collapse of an Islamic government ruled by
Necmettin Erbakan's Refah Party, the fourth government the army had toppled in
50 years. The AKP is a descendent of the Refah Party and Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul were Refah members.
According to Congar, the Sledgehammer documents recommend working against the
then-newly elected AKP and include preparation for a state of emergency and a
post-coup environment. One section names a council of ministers which would
form a temporary government and provide governance plans for foreign affairs
and a state-run economy.
The most dramatic sections are Sledgehammer's four "action plans", including a
plot by the gendarme branch of the Turkish military to bomb two major Istanbul
mosques - Beyazit and Fatih - during Friday prayers. The documents describe
teams of nine people - all whom are named and their military ID numbers listed
- and what their roles would be, such as scouting or planting explosives.
The attacks were not planned to kill people, only to wound, according to
Congar. Neighborhoods were to be infiltrated after the attack to make sure a
religious uprising would follow the bombings that undermined civilian rule.
An air force action plan codenamed "Oraj" (Thunderstorm) describes provoking a
Greek pilot into shooting down a Turkish fighter plane; or, Turkey shooting
down its own plane if the Greeks were not provoked. This plan aimed to put
pressure on the government by sparking a nationalist fury that would justify a
military takeover.
A naval action plan codenamed "Suga" was signed off by Ozden Ornek, a former
navy commander. Ornek's diaries, which detail another coup plot, were published
in a magazine in 2007. The magazine was subsequently shut down, and Ornek's
diaries now serve as part of the "Ergenekon" indictment against an alleged
ultra-nationalist group of conspirators within the state structure. Ornek was
also detained on Monday.
The main Sledgehammer document called for a veiled discussion of the plans
among the Turkish military's top commanders. And in March 2003, 160 officers
attended a seminar convened in the Selimiye army barracks in Istanbul. Congar
and her team have tape recordings from the seminar as well as the files of
presentations delivered there. Congar said that on the recordings one can hear
Cetin Dogan criticizing the AKP; she also said that the PowerPoint
presentations were not about "normal security situations".
The Sledgehammer documents also include pages and pages of civil servant
"ratings". Turkish bureaucrats from the judiciary, the Foreign Ministry, the
State Planning Department, the Foreign Trade Department and other departments
and ministries are named and given a "plus" or "minus", that is, allegedly a
score of "with us or against us". These ratings also included "notes" on the
person: whether the person was religious, or an Alevi (Turkey's main religious
minority), or, for example, an alcoholic or a womanizer.
Many people argue that the Sledgehammer action plans are simply scenarios, but
Congar says the personnel lists indicate that Sledgehammer was not simply an
abstract "war-game" as some members of the military have called it.
"Once you start making lists of the people who are going to be arrested when
there's a coup, and writing about their personal life, that's already a form of
implementation. That goes beyond planning," she said. One list named the
bureaucrats, officials and even other military officers who would be arrested,
removed or replaced following an army takeover.
Two weeks ago, reporters at Congar's paper turned all the documents over to
prosecutors in the original suitcase in which they came.
Hilmi Ozkok, the chief of staff when Sledgehammer was drafted, was not detained
on Monday. It is understood that it was Ozkok who "stood in the way" of the
Sledgehammer plans being realized.
Most believe Ozkok, the MIT (the Turkish National Intelligence Agency) and
Erdogan knew of the plan in 2003. This has led to a number of theories
regarding the intent of Sledgehammer. Some say the plan was never meant to be
implemented, but rather the rumor or knowledge of the plan was a threat meant
to intimidate and control the new AKP government.
"How on earth could the Turkish Armed Forces [TSK] plan to bomb mosques? This
is unjust. The TSK has limits to its patience. I denounce these claims ... We
order our soldiers to attack [enemies] exclaiming, 'Allah, Allah!' How on earth
would the TSK bomb mosques? Such claims are unjust," General Ilker Basbug, the
head of Turkey's armed forces, said after the alleged plot was revealed.
Also, there is speculation as to why the plan - if it was known - was not made
public at the time. Some believe the AKP trusted Ozkok to prevent its
implementation. Others say the young AKP government wasn't confident enough,
after only a few months in office, to call the bluff of the coup plotters.
"This is not an unsolvable case, not if there's the political will," Congar
said on Tuesday evening. "I hope the investigation goes on. If it stops now
there will be too many question marks remaining."
Caleb Lauer is a freelance journalist based in Istanbul.
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