They could have prevented the coup

Special Forces Commander Gen. Zekai Aksakallı, as a witness in the case regarding the shooting of noncommissioned officer Ömer Halisdemir, said the first measure to be taken in a crisis in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) is to give the order, “No personnel to leave the barracks!”

In any kind of crisis and extraordinary situation, as soon as the news breaks out, this is the first measure to be taken, he said. “Commanding officers continue their shift indoors. This basic and simple rule that has always been practiced has not been made effective when the first news broke in July 15 [2016]. If it had been applied, the coup attempt would have been exposed at the beginning,” he said. 

Do you remember, Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Ümit Dündar, in the statement he gave to a parliamentary commission, said that “if the coup tipoff was taken seriously, the Chief of General Staff could have prevented the attempt at the beginning by giving other orders.”

Thus, in the period starting from the visit of Major H.A. to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) informing the coup until the start of the coup attempt, if “adequate” assessments had been done, then so many of our people would not have been martyred by the putschists. Those who were injured and disabled would have been living their lives safe and sound today.  

Major H.A. tipped off that there was going to be an operation conducted against the MİT Undersecretary who would be kidnapped following a raid on his house with three helicopters.  

Somehow the Chief of General Staff and the MİT Undersecretary did not assess this as a “coup attempt.” 
When the two underestimated this, a high-level anti-terror meeting was taking place. If they had evaluated the tipoff together with top level commanders, wouldn’t it have been possible to make the decisions for additional orders? 

We still have not learned this: When they learned that the MİT Undersecretary was to be kidnapped by a group of soldiers, what did the Chief of General Staff and the Undersecretary of MİT think? Did they think the kidnappers were going to ask for ransom? 

How could they not assess that this was a “military insurrection” and right at that moment raid the army aviation and catch the putschists before they took any action? 

When the Chief of General Staff ordered the closure of the air space, why did he not give the order, “Stay in the barracks?” If that order was given, would the air force commander be taken hostage at a wedding party? If he had been commanding his forces, would the coup stagers seize the Akıncı air base and bomb the city with planes taking off from there? 

Why were these orders not given? 

What to accuse Mr. Governor with? 

On March 21, a one-day state of emergency was declared in the Central Anatolian province of Niğde, thus a one-day ban on all activities.  

The Office of the Governor had shortened the seven-day ban to one-day and it just so happened that there was an event that Meral Akşener, a former Istanbul deputy, was to attend at Niğde that day.  

It was reported that the governor had run a risk analysis before he put the ban. 

It is obvious that the ban was imposed so that the activity Akşener was set to attend would be cancelled. 

Remember how we’ve been blaming European politicians for obstructing the organizing of such activities? Now, are we going to say the same to the governor, the interior minister, or the prime minister? 

What are the ethics? 

Those cases against the Fethullahist coup attempt are opened one after the other. There are cases with hundreds of defendants, their indictments have been written, and even the hearings have started. 

Well, why are the indictments of the jailed journalists not in sight yet? They have been waiting for months for their indictments. Nazlı Ilıcak, Şahin Alpay, Ahmet Turan Alkan, Ali Bulaç and Mümtazer Türköne do not even know what they are accused of. We don’t either. 

How come the journalist and writer Ahmet Şık can be both from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and FETÖ? We do not know that either. He has been in jail for months. 

The brothers Ahmet Altan and Mehmet Altan are currently under arrest. It is claimed that they gave subliminal messages. Tunca Öğreten is also in jail - not accused of anything yet. 

Kadri Gürsel, Murat Sabuncu, Güray Öz, Musa Kart, Hakan Kara, Turhan Günay, Önder Çelik, Bülent Utku, Kemal Güngör and Akın Atalay have been under arrest since November. Their charges are not known either. 

These indictments are not written and it seems they will not be written for a long time, because they have to find a crime before writing them. The indictments are not written because they wish that these pre-trial detentions will constitute as penalties for these journalists.