Criminal Complaint against Chief of General Staff

Journalists Ahmet İnsel, Ali Bayramoğlu, Baskın Oran, Aydın Engin, European Union expert Cengiz Aktar, Cengiz Alğan and Prof. Gencay Gürsoy filed a criminal complaint against the General Staff on the grounds of a statement published on the General Staff's website that allegedly targeted the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) regarding the issue of bilingualism (Turkish/Kurdish).

In an announcement on 17 December, the General Staff expressed their "concern" about "the discussions on 'our language' coming up in the public agenda in recent days that is tried to be brought quickly to a point of revolutionizing the basic organizational philosophy of our republic. [...]".

The group of intellectuals submitted a petition to the Court of Appeals Public Prosecution on Monday (20 December). At the same time, they launched a signature campaign to express their protest against the General Staff's announcement under www.GenelKurmaySucDuyurusu.org.

The petition reads as follows:

"On 17/12/2010, the Presidency of the General Staff published an announcement to the political arena and the public with the apparent knowledge of the Chief of General Staff".

"The announcement on subject included threatening political statements and assessments regarding the official language and the social use of language as a discussion and solution to be handled entirely on a political level. The commander of an armed institution has exceeded his duty and authority granted to him by law. These statements abolish politics as the place for a solution and could pave the way to results that would destroy freedom of speech of the public and the individual".

"According to Article 148 C and E of the Military Criminal Law, it is a crime for a military party to issue politically motivated statements, declarations, writings and suggestions, prepare political statements and forward them to publishing organs."

"For the reasons defined above, we file a criminal complaint against the Chief of General Staff Işık Koşaner. We submit and request to launch an investigation about the officer on subject related to the statements in the announcement by reason of the authorization by Paragraphs 7 and 8 of Article 148 of the Constitution". (EÜ/VK)