Finishing touches from Bozdağ

 

 

Ankara Republic Chief Prosecution has brought prosecutions against 481 people following completion of its investigation into the Akıncı Base from where the 15 July coup attempt was directed. There is mention in the indictment of the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organisation (FETO), which carried out the coup attempt, being the hireling of the ‘mastermind’. It is noticeable that the indictment, in which the chief culprit is Fethullah Gülen, while fugitive Adil Öksüz is number two, has been purged of sections in the earlier Overarching and Headquarters indictments pointing to FETO’s political arm/responsibility. This purging evidently took place following the submission of the Akıncı indictment to Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdağ the day before yesterday by a group of three prosecutors including Ankara Chief Prosecutor Yüksel Kocaman. Deputy Chief Prosecutor Necip Cem İşçimen, who referred to the political arm in the 15 July overarching indictment, was subsequently removed from his post. There is noticeable praise in the indictment, which is silent over the role of public officials whose negligence contributed to Adil Öksüz fleeing and evading apprehension, for the way the coup attempt was supressed under President Tayyip Erdoğan’s leadership.

 

25 GENERALS IN THE DOCK

 

There are a total of 481 suspects in the indictment, consisting of the one full general, 6 major generals, 18 brigadier generals, 22 colonels, 26 lieutenant colonels, 33 majors, 56 captains, 62 flying officers, 115 second lieutenants, 131 non-commissioned officers and one specialised sergeant who participated in the coup at Akıncı. The first six lines of the indictment are devoted to the coup’s civilian directors. The indictment, in which Fethullah Gülen is the chief culprit, lists Adil Öksüz, Kemal Batmaz, Hakan Çiçek, Nurettin Oruç and Harun Biniş as suspects in that order. Suspect number seven, on the other hand, is Air Force Commander Full General Akın Öztürk. Aggravated lifeimprisonment 303 times is sought for the 45 ringleaders, including the six civilians.

 

PRAISE FOR ERDOĞAN

 

The President, Speaker of Parliament, Minister of Justice and Prime Ministry have entered the indictment as complainants. Erdoğan’s lawyer’s complaint submission is also included in the indictment. The prosecution has incorporated certain comments made in this submission into the indictment and stated, ‘The act of attempting a coup was prevented as a people, under his excellency the President’s leadership and with the support of ruling and opposition parties, at the cost of fallen combatants and heroes.’

 

WHO IS THIS MASTERMIND?

 

In the indictment, in which it is claimed that the mastermind, incapable of tolerating the rule that ‘sovereignty unconditionally belongs to the nation’ laid down in Article 6 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, staged street protests in the spring and summer months of 2013 using the felling of trees in Istanbul’s Gezi Park as a pretext and attempted to change the administration the people voted for in free elections under the control of the independent judiciary, it is stated that the mastermind, unable to change the administration the people had voted for with these protests, once more attempted to change the administrators the people had voted for in the 17-25 December process using the people within the police and judicial bodies of another hireling, the FETO/ PDY terrorist organisation.

 

It is said that, with a result that they did not care for emerging from the elections after the 17-25 December process and by way of last resort, now that the organisation’s people within the judiciary and police were beginning to be identified and passivised by the state, the FETO/ PDY terrorist organisation decided to use the force it had created through years of infiltrating the Turkish Armed forces. In the indictment, noting that as soon as the results of the general election held on 1 November 2015 had become certain, determination was made of the persons who were to organise the coup attempt by the FETO/ PDY terrorist organisation’s founders and directors, it is stated that Adil Öksüz, Kemal Batmaz, Hakan Çiçek, Nurettin Oruç and Harun Biniş, details of whom are provided in the section devoted to the civilian director suspects, were appointed to manage the preparatory activities for the coup by making contact with the organisation’s people embedded within the Turkish Armed Forces.

 

 

FIRST STARTED IN DECEMBER 2015

 

In the indictment, in which it is stated that Adil Öksüz started coup preparation meetings in Ankara on 27 December 2015 after having received the instruction from Fethullah Gülen in the USA, there is a detailed description of the way high-ranking people from the military with connections to the organisation attended the meetings held by Öksüz on various dates in Ankara and coup planning was conducted.

 

Purged by the Minister?

 

There is a notable absence from the indictment that runs to 4,658 pages of the political leadership’s role in FETO’s infiltration of the Turkish Armed Forces and its attaining the strength to conduct the 15 July coup attempt. Sections referring to political responsibility were included in the FETO overarching indictment in which civilians were charged and in the 15 July overarching indictment devoted to events at the General Chief of Staff Headquarters. Particular reference was made in these indictments to FETO’s formation within the Turkish Armed Forces. It was stressed that FETO became embedded and spread within the Turkish Armed Forces in the years noted to be the AKP’s time in office and had taken over the Turkish Armed Forces in the past few years, that, ever since 2011, 80% of those promoted from colonel to general had been FETO members, and that in June 2016 FETO saw to it that the political authority made a statutory amendment with a view to eliminating Ataturkists from the military. Chief Prosecutor Necip Cem İşçimen, who drafted the Headquarters indictment, was removed from his post after having submitted this file to the court and has been passivised. İşçimen was among the first to appear on television on the evening of the coup and he announced that arrest warrants had been issued for the coupists and FETO.