Military Interferes Everywhere!

General Yasar Büyükanit, Chief of General Staff, had announced that he would speak about current affairs.

Speaking at the opening of the academic year at military academies, he kept his "promise".

Büyükanit yesterday (1 October) talked about six issues. His talk was published on the website of the General Staff and is here summarised under six headings:

"Fight against Terrorism": The Turkish Armed Forces have been struggling against terorrism for years. We are faced with a separatist terrorist organisation based on ethnic nationalism. [...] Its treacherous attacks have mostly harmed the people of the region, and there have been efforts to prevent the development of the region. This was done in order to shake the trust of the people in the state.

Faced with these attacks, we are continuing our struggle with terrorism [...] with great determination. [...] If a country's terrorist organisation is not supported from abroad, it cannot continue. We have warned many friendly and allied countries about this issue before. But, unfortunately, we have not been supported by any country.

"The so-called political extensions of the terrorist organisation": We are faced with a mentality which cannot bring itself to call a terrorist organisation terrorist, which calls members of this terrorist organisation "brothers", and which calls the Turkish Armed Forces "separatist".

The Turkish Republic, which is a democratic legal state, must solve this problem legally. [...] No other country's security forces have been so obstructed in their practices to struggle against terrorism. I know that some people and groups will be discomforted by my words.

Our expectation of these circles is to respond to these words with concrete proof. Our nation will never forgive those who talk with nice-sounding slogans.

Northern Iraq: The latest development is that Northern Iraq is moving fast towards not a federal or loose federal structure, but a confederal structure. This worries us greatly. [...] Turkey must be aware that we will be faced with an independent state in the north of Iraq when conditions are suitable. I can say that this would be a security problem rather than a political problem.

New constitution: We are aware of the first constitutional draft prepared at university level. We have studied this draft. But we do not know the latest draft by the party in power.

Thus, we are not able to comment before the latest draft is published. As soon as it is, we will pronounce our views on the issues that concern us. [...]

We have principles that we support and will never give up. These are:

• The unitary state of the Turkish Republic,
• the nation-state made up of this unitary structure,
• based on this structure, a laicist state,
• and that political, emotional and prejudiced approaches do not damage the established organisation of the Armed Forces.

However, we have begun to see a certain atmosphere in certain circles, which is trying to cut back the state and elevate the individual. Is the state not a structure made for the individual? Can we describe the state as an institution which oppresses the individual?

"Attacks on the Turkish Armed Forces": These attacks are not only coming from inside the country, but also from outside, and I am sad to say, these are attacks from abroad which are supported within the country. Our partial silence up to today has been due to the respect we feel for our state, our nation and our order.

Turkey-Malaysia debate: The topics brought up in these debates must be approached by looking objectively, and through the window of modern Turkey, in order to learn lessons. All the same, it is worrying that the Turkish Republic has made these kinds of debates central. (EÜ/AG)