“I Am Also Victim of Ergenekon…”

Yesterday evening (7 May), former Chief of Staff Yaşar Büyükanıt appeared in the “32nd Day” political talkshow hosted by journalists Mehmed Ali Birand and Rıdvan Akar.

"E-memorandum"

One of the issues they discussed was the “e-memorandum” that appeared on the website of the General Staff website in the night of 27 April 2007.

Büyükanıt said that he personally wrote the “announcement, not memorandum.”

“Why did we put in in on Friday evening? I had to leave Ankara the next day. It is a notification emphasising the sensitivity of the Turkish Armed Forces towards laicism. It had appeared clearly that laicism was being corroded. It was not about the presidential elections. There was only one sentence about the president.”

When asked whether he felt regret about the Internet posting, the retired general answered in the negative. He said that he later talked to the Prime Minister (Recep Tayyip Erdoğan) in a “civilised manner” about the posting.

A "victim" himself...

He recounted that there were attempts to prevent him from becoming Chief of Staff in 2003 and 2004. When asked whether he was “a victim of Ergenekon himself”, he said, “Yes, it is really like that. Thank goodness, I became immune to these kind of initiatives, they increased my determination.”

Asked whether he believed that the accusations against a group of people known as Ergenkon were really a conspiracy, he said, “I do not know. I say this sincerely, it is impossible to evaluate the situation because I do not have the information. I know what has been covered by the media. Ergenekon has become so wide-spread that htere may really be some people who became involved in criminal activity. They may have got together for patriotic reasons, and there may be some small groups who went further. The judiciary will solve all of this.

Dolmabahçe meeting

The retired general was also asked about his private meeting with Prime Minister Erdoğan in Domabahçe Palace in Istanbul just a week after the Internet posting. There has been much public speculation about the 2.5 hour meeting. Büyükanıt said that neither he nor the PM took notes, but that it was not a secret meeting.

Personal information found with Eruygur

During the programme, Büyükanıt was shown documents on his and his family’s health which were found in the possession of retired General Şener Eruygur, now a defendant in the Ergenekon trial. Büyükanıt said, “I don’t know about this, you have to ask Şener Pasha.”

He said that people had attempted various slander campaigns against him before, but that it was illegal to collect personal information. When asked if he had expected anything like this from Eruygur, he said, “No, I was very surprised…my daughter’s friends, my older sister’s health problems…I did not understand it.”

Coup diaries

The journalists also asked him about the diaries allegedly belonging to retired Admiral Özden Örnek. They were published in the Nokta magazine and reported coup attempts. Büyükanıt replied, “We did some research…I did not find anything. There was nothing, no documents. I only read them in the magazine. You see, in order to reach a decision, there need to be documents. I can sit down now and write a diary in your name. Can I write with so much detail? No, I can’t. But it is technically possible to write it. Therefore, it is very difficult to make a decision.”

He was also asked about an article which appeared in the Cumhuriyet newspaper in 2003, entitled “The young officers are unhappy”. For Büyükanıt, the content of the article was “a news item injected by someone, perhaps in order to put pressure on the General Staff.”

On military coups

When asked about the role of the military, he said, “Is the army the only protector of the regime? If everyone does what they should, if legal means are used without violence, then success can be achieved. But when this is not done, when it is left up to the military, then soldiers can only do one thing: take up arms.”

Büyükanıt also alleged slandering campaigns against him and that his phones were tapped, although he said he did not know by whom. (EÖ/AG)

*This information was taken from the hurriyet.com.tr website.