Where is the political leg of the Gülenists?

“The organization has been able to have legal arrangements done by the political authority.” This is a sentence from the indictment into the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), written by the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office. 

According to Emin Özgönül’s story on daily Sözcü, the “organization” has been able to have some changes made in the military service law after the dates Dec. 17 and 25, 2013, which are considered by the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) as a “milestone” in the fight against this group. 

In the first change, promotions were opened for colonels who were still in the waiting period. In the second one, retirements of colonels with 28 to 30 years of service were encouraged with bonuses. 

The office of the prosecutor explains the motive behind this as “the organization, with the aim of seizing control of the commanding level of the Turkish Armed Forces [TSK] has reduced the waiting period of four years for colonels, thus enabling its members to be considered for promotion.”  

The reasons are listed in the indictment as: “To remove those generals out of the military who are not their members. To retire colonels en masse, who are graduates of 1988 and before and who are not members. To promote those colonels who are their members to top levels of command.  

As a matter of fact, at the Supreme Military Council (YAŞ) in 2014, the 10 colonels who have been promoted one year early as generals have all participated in the coup attempt. Among them are: Semih Terzi, who raided the Special Forces Command, and Gökhan Şahin Sönmezateş, who was involved in the Marmaris raid. 

These military law amendments were submitted by AKP deputies and again with majority of the votes from AKP deputies, they were approved. This is the proof of how the political authority in parliament was also a part of the conspiracy. While even those who have only walked passed Bank Asya have been dismissed from government jobs, the political leg of FETÖ is wandering freely. There are tens of thousands of ByLock users, but no politicians among them – isn’t that the case? 

The performance is staged as though they do not exist, but the political leg of FETÖ is nowhere else but inside the ruling party, the AKP.
  
A country without justice 

“Political power does not accept partners. Otherwise, crises become inevitable,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said. He referred to “powers that have authority but are not accountable to the nation,” which must be the judiciary. In a democracy, the existence and independence of the judiciary constitutes the main guarantee of all the rights of those living in that country. 

These words of the president, once again, prove that if the constitutional changes are accepted in the referendum, then we would be striped of such an assurance.

Together with the parliament, the judiciary will also be under “one man” and all our assurances will be removed. The president will be able to rule the country with decrees without any control. 

He or she will be able to do anything he or she wants, and those who think their rights have been violated will not be able to find an authority to appeal to. 

In a country where there is no judicial control, where a significant portion of legislative powers are handed over to one person, arbitrariness would rule. 

In a country where there is no independent judiciary, there cannot be justice either. A country without justice is shaken from its foundations.