The Embarrassment of the General Staff

So it means that the whole issue was just a "war game". In fact, mosques were not going to be bombed, "fundamentalists" would not attack the military museum, Al-Qaeda and the PKK would not be made to carry out attacks on civilian people, jet planes would not be crashed, people would not be arrested and put into stadiums and coliseums, journalists would not be classified as "on our side" and "the others" and the first ones would not be used and the second ones not oppressed. So, all that was entirely made up by Taraf newspaper.

According to the announcement made by the General Staff on Thursday (20 January) all what is written in the paper was just a "planned exercise". So, in the face of our country being exposed to an "external threat", our General Staff even took into account a coup attempt by the Armed Forces, the most unlikely possibility.

To cut a long story short, the General Staff says this: "Even if - as published by Taraf newspaper - that many generals and colonels within the TSK (Turkish Armed Forces) were involved hand in hand with that number of civilian patriots in a coup attempt, our armed forces were doing a 'planned exercise' to test the strength of our constitutional regime against such an attempt. What you saw was actually a war game, so to speak".

I am sure that all "planned exercises" like the "Balyoz" exercise were successfully completed and the blue forces "achieved all the targets" against the red forces, everything entered in the record.

Now that everything has been disclosed and once "disinformation" has been created, this is my "petition" to our General Staff: take the broom of truth in your hand and clean up this filth. They should tell us "Yes, in case of such a coup attempt within the context of this exercise, it has been tested once again whether the putchists would be caught very securely by virtue of the self-imposed authority of the Military Code; whether they could be disposed without bloodshed and whether the freedom and rights of our citizens would be secured, and we passed the test. There is nothing to worry about, etcetera..."

If not, it is only just to seek a way other than a recourse to our "mind and conscience" regarding the true nature of our General Staff's "Balyoz". Our minds and consciences are still so very busy with the deep wounds torn open by the executions of our colleagues in the "Flag" campaign on 12 September - we cannot take on the job of relieving the conscience of our Armed Forces, there is nothing we can do about that.

Is it really that difficult to give a proper explanation? Or is our General Staff too modest or faint hearted to be proud of suppressing a coup, even if it was only on paper? (AH/EK)