'Take action or else,' Turkish military tells government

Infuriated at what he sees as growing smear tactics against the military, the country’s top general has indirectly demanded the government take action to stop the campaign, threatening to share intelligence on the issue if necessary.

The chief of the Navy Command, meanwhile, has continued to criticize what he called the targeting of his forces.

“[If the campaign goes too far,] we’ll begin to share our own intelligence with the public. We also have much information and we’ll be obliged to disclose it,” Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ said in an interview with daily Habertürk. “We’ll resort to the judgment and we’ll fight for our rights.”

The military brass has been complaining of what it terms an asymmetric psychological campaign aimed at tarnishing the military’s credibility through allegedly fake coup plots. A number of top military personnel have been prosecuted for their alleged links to the plotters while two top officers were arrested last year on charges of planning to assassinate Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç.

Daily Taraf later published a military plan, allegedly dating from 2003 and detailing a coup plot that included bombing mosques in Istanbul. At the same time, prosecutors arrested Navy officers on charges of planning to kill the Navy Forces Commander.

Başbuğ earlier described these revelations as part of a smear campaign, asking government officials to take action to stop them.

“Our patience has a limit,” the general said. “You should know very clearly that whatever we do will be within the legal framework.”

“When I say that our patience has a limit, I mean that we know perfectly the whole background to this campaign,” he added. “We know it, but we have remained silent. We remain silent in the hope that someone will take the necessary steps.”

Başbuğ’s words have been interpreted as an indirect message to the government. The general and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have established a direct channel of dialogue and meet on a weekly basis to discuss recent developments. Although Başbuğ is believed to have shared the military’s information on the campaign, it is understood that the government has not yet taken any action on the matter.

Saying that the campaign had similarities with past ones in Latin American countries, a region that was marked by frequent coups, the top general said the campaign aimed to depict the Turkish military as an enemy of the Turkish people.

“I share everything [including this impression of mine] with the president and the prime minister,” he said. “I share problems with them. I can say this: The state shares the same opinion on this issue.”

Noting the military was classifying its own intelligence and that the necessary explanations would be made when appropriate, Başbuğ said forces were adopting various technological measures to halt the leakage of confidential data to outside parties.

When asked the military’s opinion on changing the country’s present nation-state model into a federation, Başbuğ said the Turkish Armed Forces, or TSK, would never allow such a development.

“It cannot happen. Loose federative systems are also a matter of discussion in Europe. Isn’t France a nation-state? Britain? Or Germany?” he said. “It’s a philosophy. Existing problems can be solved within this philosophy.”

Başbuğ's grievances received a positive reaction from the opposition, with Deniz Baykal, head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, calling on all parties to consider the general’s remarks.

“The military has obviously embraced a new way out in its fight against this campaign,” Baykal said, adding that the military’s complaints have not received an encouraging response from the government.  

In the wake of the alleged suicide of Navy Col. Berk Erden, Navy Force Commander Eşref Uğur Yiğit continued his criticisms of recent affairs during a Friday interview with daily Hürriyet. In addition to this incident, a number of navy officers have been arrested as part of an investigation over unearthed weapons in the Poyrazköy neighborhood of Istanbul.

“The accused officer is the commander of the nearby military unit from which these unearthed weapons are considered to have been taken,” Yiğit said. “He has the keys to the arsenal. If he needed weapons, he would open the doors and get what he needed. Why would he bury them?”

Başbuğ meanwhile visited the Navy’s facilities in Gölcük to boost the morale of personnel there.

/Hurriyet Daily News/