Why would the archive of the General Staff not be opened?

I genuinely consider the Dersim debate important. It really does not matter whether the prime minister has disclosed already known documents or he has brought up this topic to wear down the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). What is important is the prime minister has opened the lid of Pandora’s box that was being held shut. This box is never to be shut again. Thus Turkey will find the courage to confront the bitter pages in its past.

Meanwhile, the Dersim debates have also unveiled another reality. That is, the inability to open the archives of the General Staff. The most important documents of the past are in the hands of the General Staff. This is indeed natural because the most important power of the past era was the army. Moreover, unless these documents are disclosed, it is obvious it will not be possible to hold a healthy debate.

Well, why and from whom are those documents being hidden? Every country discloses its documents regardless of its confidentiality after a certain period of time, whereas we live behind a curtain of confidentiality. Why?

I cannot find a realistic answer to these questions.

Prosecutors should ask Çiller about Feb. 28

Finally, Feb. 28 will be investigated. If you ask me, it is high time this was done.

Those who remember should know that on Feb. 28, 1987, a much open and overt “coup threat” was experienced compared to the period marked by “Coup Journal” containing coup preparations of some commanders during the years 2003 and 2004.

The Office of the Chief of General Staff had announced to everyone it would intervene unless the Erbakan-Çiller coalition resigned.

Let alone a coup attempt that was above board. Even the president of the time, President Süleyman Demirel, when he was accused of not objecting to the coup attempt, is known to have said, “If the government had not resigned, the army was going to intervene. I have prevented that.”

Such an open military intervention to political life has been experienced, but somehow the judiciary has not or did not want to act upon that. The judiciary that has opened cases based on the most improbable assumptions and reasoning in Ergenekon and Sledgehammer (Balyoz) cases and that continues the arrests at the expense of offending the social conscious has chosen to disregard Feb. 28.

Finally what was needed was done and the case covering another bitter period of our recent history has been opened.

I know very well because I have made the documentary of the period. It is a process that had no secrets, a time when opposing viewpoints clashed and when the military insisted it had to be done its way. The majority of the main actors (except Erbakan) are alive.

My advice to prosecutors is that they start with the former leader of True Path Party (DYP) Tansu Çiller. She is the person who knows best what was behind the incidents and who has done what. Nobody but she has lived Feb. 28 as one-to-one as her. Moreover, she has not openly shared her memories with anyone up until now.

You will see, this investigation will reveal such games and conspiracies that would astound all of us that many a tall tree will shed its leaves.

No doubt Amberin, we do not like foreigners!

Amberin Zaman asked in her column in daily Haber Türk, “Are Turks racist?”

She said she used to reply to that question with a firm “No,” but now she has changed her mind. A journalist of Bangladeshi origin, Amberin has been called “Dirty Bangladeshi” or because of her stance on the Armenian issue, “Dirty Armenian.”

The cliché of “Turks are tolerant to foreigners, they are hospitable and they open their arms and help” is all lies.

It is bitter but true… Nobody take offense, but Amberin Zaman was right