Jurists Demand Inquiry for General Tokat

Jurists are preparing to file a criminal complaint against former Turkish Lieutenant General Altay Tokat who revealed in a recent interview that he had ordered clandestine street bombings while on duty in Southeast Turkey "to make judges and civil servants take their jobs serious and get in line". He reportedly had at least two bombs thrown close to residential compounds hosting the officials "to educate them".

Tokat's revelations were made during an interview with the "Aktuel" weekly and reported in summary in the July 27 issue of Sabah newspaper. He was speaking in relation to the controversial bookstore bombing in Semdinli by security officials, which the general described as a "possibly clumsy" operation.

"In my time," the retired general said, "I also had them throw a few bombs to some critical points. These were empty places! My issue was to give a message".

Tokat said the message given through street bombings targeted civil servants and judges who were assigned to the region and the explosions occurred close to were they lived.

"Civil servants, judges that come from the West [of Turkey] don't understand the seriousness of the situation... when things became calmer, they started to take this business nor seriously... In consequence I had [bombs] thrown at two places close to their houses. After that they understood that they needed to be careful. One [act of] disaster is better than a thousand words of advice. This way I educated them," he said.

"You can't immediately evaluate this by saying throwing bombs is illegal. I might have saved the lives of those people. I did not tell them either. Now if you construe this as assassination, I'll laugh at that" he was quoted as further saying.

Criminal Investigation

Diyarbakir Bar Association Chairman Sezgin Tanrikulu told bianet on Thursday that the association will be filing a criminal complaint to start an investigation into Tokat who "openly confessed his crime" while a former senior military judge said the revelations raised suspicions of an organized formation.

According to Tanrikulu the very essence of Tokat's statement is a crime in itself and prosecutors should take action on their own. "There is a direct threat and an influencing of justice" he said. "These bombing incidents should be investigated. There is also the praising of crime".

Referring to Tokat's assignment to the Diyarbakir Public Order Army Corps Command before serving as the Hakkari Commando Regiment Commander in the region, Tanrikulu explained that his revelations proved correct the existing suspicion over he impartiality of trials held in Diyarbakir and Van provinces in the 1990s.

Recalling that the Bar Association had long been raising questions on justice handed out during the 90s, Tanrikulu called for a debate on the impartiality of judges to start based on the former general's statements.

Kardas: Bombing may not be the only crime

Retired Military Prosecutor and Judge Umit Kardas told bianet in an exclusive interview that Tokat's statement was definitely a confession and added, "A Lieutenant General can't just go around exploding bombs as if he was using fireworks."

Kardas said in reference to the Semdinli bombing, "While non commissioned officers are exploding bombs, where does Tokat find the courage to say these things? It means they rely on a formation, a focal point. They rust that this cannot be revealed."

According to the former military justice, "This cannot be something personal. If there is a criminal conspiracy, a gang, this needs to reveal. In fact this itself might be a more severe crime. It might even fall under the scope of acts to change the constitutional order."

Kardas also said that he was not too hopeful any results would be achieved. "To be correct," he said, "the prosecutor where Tokat was on duty should open an investigation. But the Semdinli case has shows us things. No civilian prosecutor can do this anymore. "

Stressing that the incident was not only limited to the military Kardas concluded "This is not just a military issue. It is a general system with its soldier, politician and media. One needs to ask politicians how they just watched on". (TK/II/YE)