24.05.2013 09:44
When the Turkish military forced the coalition government led by the now-defunct conservative Welfare Party (RP) out of power citing alleged rising religious fundamentalism in the country on Feb.28, 1997, this came to be referred to as a...
When the Turkish military forced the coalition government led by the now-defunct conservative Welfare Party (RP) out of power citing alleged rising religious fundamentalism in the country on Feb. 28, 1997, this came to be referred to as a post-modern coup.
Turkey is now taking steps to settle accounts with the events surrounding the coup.
The 1,309-page indictment that will make it possible to try the coup perpetrators has been completed and submitted to the Ankara 13th High Criminal Court, and eventually the trial of the Feb. 28 coup perpetrators will start.
The defendants are being indicted for the crime of committing a coup, which is punishable with life imprisonment.
The indictment lists 103 defendants including retired senior military officers, and the number one defendant is İsmail Hakkı Karadayı, who was the chief of general staff during the Feb. 28 coup, and Çevik Bir, who steered the activities of the West Study Group (BÇG) -- the mechanism that masterminded the whole coup -- is the number two defendant.
It should be noted that the indictment does not make any mention of the civilians, media bosses, businesspeople and academics who laid the political and social groundwork for the coup.
In its current form, the Feb. 28 indictment is far from satisfying the expectations of the victims --currently numbering around 400 -- and the general public. Yet, in the press release about the indictment, it is indicated that the investigation about the civilian leg of the coup is under way and that a second indictment will soon be presented to the court.
The complainants include former Prime Minister Tansu Çiller, former minister Meral Akşener and former deputy Merve Kavakçı. It is estimated that the number of complainants will increase over the course of the litigation. This trial is a big opportunity for Turkey to confront its recent past. While it is still impossible to maintain that big progress has been made in confronting and questioning the past, in particular as regards the debates on the role and impact of the military on politics, it must be admitted that everything is falling into place in Turkey, and it is getting clearer that coups like that of the Feb. 28 cannot be assessed independently of the political climate of the era.
The 1990s were the years when Turkey's defense concept was changed. The disintegration of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Gulf War and the ethnic and national conflicts in the Balkans were the developments which urged Turkey to change its defense and security concept that saw Greece and Russia as priority threats and rebuild it with a focus on "separatism" and "reactionaryism" as the main threats.
In the National Security Council (MGK) meeting held in July 1992, the military members of the council decided to present a document that was kept secret even from the deputies for the government's approval: the National Security Policy Document.
This period was actually the era of modernization of the Turkish army. Within the framework of the new security concept, the gendarmerie forces were recruited from commandos and specially trained squads were formed, and the Special Warfare Department was restructured as the Special Forces Command; all these developments further narrowed the sphere of civilian politics. The coalition government of the Necmettin Erbakan-led RP and the Çiller-led True Path Party (DYP) -- known as the Refah-Yol government -- was portrayed as an internal threat to society, and the subversive generals ordered tanks to travel through the city center of the Sincan district of Ankara and boosted the activities of the BÇG.
Years later, today another coup trial is launched as those against Ergenekon and the coup of Sept. 12, 1980, are about to conclude. Thus, Turkey is clinching another victory against military tutelage and the militarist status quo.
ORHAN MİROĞLU (Cihan/Today's Zaman)