UNDER WHOSE CONTROL?

"While I am aware that the Turkish Prime Minister, Justice Minister and Interior Minister have expressed strong determination to uncover all dimensions of this incident and to expend every effort in bringing the perpetrators to justice, I would like to appeal to your Excellency’s Government to ensure that all deaths that occurred in connection with the Semdinli bookshop bombing are promptly, independently and thoroughly investigated in accordance with the Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions."
~ Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, UN General Assembly, Human Rights Council

There was something interesting from Monday's Milliyet, titled, "A strange speech in the file". In the file is a report by a chairman of the National Forces Association, Fikri Karadağ, one of the accused in the Ergenekon case. The report is a three-page document with the title: "Now Turkey is under our control". This document is the transcription of a conversation between the Turkish Prime Minister, R. Tayyip Erdoğan and the current Chief of the Turkish General Staff, Yaşar Büyükanıt. At the time, Büyükanıt was the TSK Land Forces Commander. The report is a documentation of a secret meeting between the two, and can be found in the annexes of the Ergenekon indictment.

Note that, given the information the document references about the Şemdinli bombing, the meeting probably took place sometime in 2006, before Büyükanıt became the Chief of the Turkish General Staff.

The dialog, as published in Milliyet, is as follows:

Büyükanıt: Mr. Prime Minister the evidence and intelligence that we received shows that TSK and your government is part of a cabal, and you cannot expect us the attitude that you have toward TSK and toward the set-up by foreign supporters against YAŞ (Higher Military Assemblage). If we, as the TSK, did not give any reaction to this, within the constitutional platforms and to your department, it's because we do not want to give support to anyone who wants to lead our country into chaos. Because then they would say, "TSK talked, and the economy collapsed." That is why we did not speak openly to the public. However, we cannot stand anymore for the moves of your party, with the support of foreigners, against TSK.

Erdoğan: My dear Pasha, please don't fear. There won't be any economic crisis in Turkey just because "TSK spoke". We have agreed with the world's most prominent financial institutions, and whatever is supposed to be investigated about you and TSK regarding the Şemdinli incident, this investigation will be done. Turkey is no longer under TSK's control. Turkey will be a country under the control of the people. And there won't be anything wrong with the economy if a paşa from the TSK talks. We are cooperating together with the world's richest groups, like Rockefeller.

Büyükanıt: Mr. Prime Minister, this tone of speech is not the kind of speech of Turkey's prime minister. Did you agree with the world's most prominent financial institutions in order to block TSK from fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities? Mr. Prime Minister, you are in a cabal against Turkey. Behind the Semdinli incident, there is the intelligence service of this foreign forces, who brought your party into power. Mr. Prime Minister, if TSK is investigated, TSK will be cleared. I will be cleared. But you will be the one who is blamed. The Chief of General Staff (Hilmi Özkök), by not seeing the necessity of investigating me, saved TSK's honor. However, if Şemdinli is investigated thoroughly, everyone will see you and your undersecretariat, and those foreign forces that supported you. You are forgetting that your government is representing the state of the Turkish Republic. Mr. Prime Minister, you are not the Turkish Republic's prime minister, but you are Rockefeller's prime minister.

Erdoğan: My dear Paşa, your intelligence is wrong. Behind the Şemdinli incident are the "TSK Warlords".

Büyükanıt: Those "Warlords" are among those who carried AKP to power. Behind you and your party are these "Warlords". Some of our allies are using you and your party as a Trojan horse. You are not the prime minister of the Turkish Republic, but you are the prime minister of the "Warlords". You set up the "bagging incident" against TSK in order to punish it, with the cooperation with those forces who carried you to power, among whom is the US. The English and Zionists set up the Şemdinli incident in order to keep you in power. You are a coward who does not trust the Turkish people, but who trusts Zionists. TSK, sooner or later, will reveal this fact.

Erdoğan: Turkey is under our control. TSK is also under my control. Whoever I want as a paşa, I can appoint him to the General Staff. We have agreed with the US. We are going to have a joint operation with Iraq, Iran, and Syria. We are a partner of the US in the Greater Middle East Project; the US also sees us as their partner. Dear Paşa, Turkey is no longer in TSK's hands.

Büyükanıt: I will have to report this conversation to the Chief of General Staff. You are not a genuine Muslim. You cannot be a citizen of the Turkish Republic. Your attitude is clearly treachery and your treachery will not go without punishment. The people suffered a lot from fake religionists, fake Atatürkists, fake nationalists, and fake democrats, but, at the end, all of them were punished.

Erdoğan: You are not capable of anything. Turkey has been passed to other hands, and is still passing. Everything is under our control, and my advice to you is to also join us.

Büyükanıt: Mr. Prime Minister, I cannot join in treachery with you.

Erdoğan: You misunderstood me (Meanwhile Paşa--Büyükanıt--is trying to leave the room; Erdoğan blocks him and says). . . We are going to punish the Şemdinli prosecutor in the Şemdinli incident. There are some groups that might be against TSK [and] the extension of those groups investigated the incident.

Büyükanıt: These attitudes and flattery are not good [qualities] in a prime minister and I am leaving this disgusting environment. This meeting is over.

At this, Büyükanıt goes and following incidents are written in the report in parenthesis, by saying that Erdoğan called a couple of places by phone. He is described as "very nervous, and, quoting Erdoğan, "Find someone to calm Paşa. We made a big mistake. Whoever said that Yaşar Büyükanıt is open to every kind of offer, mislead us. Find that name." Erdoğan's orders and condemnation followed in the phone conversation.

First of all, the appearance here is one of two gangsters bargaining over some trinket in the Kapalı Çarşı. Bear in mind that this bargaining eventually led to the Dolmabahçe Deal. Part of that deal was the recognition by TSK of Gül as president. In return, in September 2007, AKP permitted the Paşas to intensify their Dirty War in The Southeast. That, in turn, led to further cooperation in the Ergenekon investigation, which has only managed to arrest and indict the old, well-known members of Ergenekon.

Then we have the appearance of the documentation of a 2006 secret meeting between the soon-to-be Chief of Turkish General Staff, Büyükanıt, and Erdoğan, who was, indeed, brought to power by the Bush administration. This document forms part of the supporting documentation of the Ergenekon indictment. If it's a bogus file, why is it in the indictment? If it's bogus, and it's in the indictment anyway, then what about the credibility of the rest of the indictment and supporting documentation?

What then, does that say about AKP's alleged crusade against the Deep State? Remember that AKP has been claiming that the end of the Ergenekon investigation is the end of the Deep State. Yet the Prime Ministry is less than thrilled that this file is annexed to their own indictment and calls it bogus. If it's a bogus file, why is it in the indictment, especially since AKP has been trying to appear as pure as the driven snow throughout this investigation? If it's bogus, and it's in the indictment anyway, then what about the credibility of the rest of the indictment and supporting documentation? What does that say about AKP's public show against Ergenekon?

Above all, the show must go on. As for justice in the Şemdinli bombing . . . fuhgeddaboudit!

THE VARIETIES OF TREASON

"Is there not some chosen curse,
Some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven,
Red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man
Who owes his greatness to his country's ruin?"
~ Joseph Addison.

Guess who's arranging an oil deal between Turkey, Kazakhstan, and "Northern Iraq"? The Prince of Darkness himself. Yes, that would be prominent neocon and Turkish agent, Richard Perle. A little bird dropped this into my email today:

Iraq War Advocate Denies Taking Part In a Consortium


Influential former Pentagon official Richard Perle has been exploring going into the oil business in Iraq and Kazakhstan, according to people with knowledge of the matter and documents outlining possible deals.

Mr. Perle, one of a group of security experts who began pushing the case for toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein about a decade ago, has been discussing a possible deal with officials of northern Iraq's Kurdistan regional government, including its Washington envoy, according to these people and the documents.

It would involve a tract called K18, near the Kurdish city of Erbil, according to documents describing the plan. A consortium founded by Turkish company AK Group International is seeking rights to drill there, the documents say. Potential backers include two Turkish companies as well as Kazakhstan, according to individuals involved.

AK's chief executive is Aydan Kodaloglu, who, like Mr. Perle, has been involved with the American Turkish Council, an advocacy group in Washington. She didn't respond to requests for comment. Phyllis Kaminsky, who identified herself as the U.S. contact for Ms. Kodaloglu, said she herself was aware of the drilling plan but referred questions about it to Mr. Perle.

"Richard would know the most," Ms. Kaminsky said. "He is involved, I know that."

This comes from the WSJ, but you'll need a subscription to read it there.

Now the KRG sees fit to do business with this bunch of devils? This is treason against the Kurdish people.

Aydan Kodaloğlu, the founder of the AK Group International in question, is a former board member of the ATC (American Turkish Council--not so much an "advocacy group" as an MİT asset), and "is a recognized expert on Turkish-American and Turkish-Israeli relations. Ms. Kodaloglu was a member of official delegations of former President Turgut Ozal and Prime Ministers Suleyman Demirel, and Tansu Ciller and was involved in the planning for the official visit to Turkey of former U.S. President George Bush." So this woman is clearly no friend of the Kurdish people and there should be extreme public censure of those Kurds who choose to do business with her.

That the Prince of Darkness himself has a pedigree that's also hostile to the Kurdish people, as well as to any theoretical description of democracy. Perle holds a position of prominence in Sibel Edmonds' gallery of rogues but, as Sibel's information shows, scumbags like Perle have long profited from Turkey and for Turkey:

Someone has to be in the middle (of the Turkish, Israeli, American military/economic machine) to keep the happy affair going, so enter the neocons, intent on securing Israel against all comers and also keen to turn a dollar. In fact the neocons seem to have a deep and abiding interest in Turkey, which, under other circumstances, might be difficult to explain. Doug Feith's International Advisors Inc, a registered agent for Turkey in 1989 - 1994, netted $600,000 per year from Turkey, with Richard Perle taking $48,000 annually as a consultant.

[ . . . ]

Contracts in the hundreds of millions, or even billions of dollars provide considerable fat for those well placed to benefit. Investigators are also looking at Israel's particular expertise in the illegal sale of US military technology to countries like China and India. Fraudulent end-user certificates produced by Defense Ministries in Israel and Turkey are all that is needed to divert military technology to other, less benign, consumers. The military-industrial-complex/neocon network is also well attested. Doug Feith has been associated with Northrup Grumman for years, while defense contractors fund many neocon-linked think tanks and "information" services. Feith, Perle and a number of other neocons have long had beneficial relationships with various Israeli defense contractors.

There's more on that at Deep Journal. Let's not forget that Perle was one of the co-authors of the "Clean Break" that created the alliance between the members of the Iron Triangle--the US, Israel, and Turkey.

Kiss democracy in South Kurdistan goodbye; Show's over, folks.

The Ankara regime is using the excuse of the Güngören bombing to bomb civilians in South Kurdistan. Fırat News reports that the villagers have emptied Bokriskan village in the Qendil region. The Turkish military conducted aerial bombing over the Balekan valley, Lewce, Inzo, and Bokriskan villages, and Geliye Bedran. In the villages where civilians were targeted, a lot of animals have been killed and the irrigation project under construction in Bokriskan has been totally destroyed. The people themselves have fled to Çoman and Ranya.

The PUK confirmed the attacks. HPG confirmed that Turkish aircraft had bombed civilian areas and also confirmed that it suffered no casualties--in stark contrast to the BS being served up in Turkish media. The attacks started forest fires in the Zap and Haftanin regions. Not too surprising as the entire region has been suffering a severe drought for months now.

On 27 July, the Turkish military conducted a comprehensive attack against PJAK positions, reinforcing the fact that Turkey and Iran are cooperating in their war against the Kurdish people.

On 24 July, Turkish aircraft attacked Çemço, Saca, and Şamke villages in the Zap region. On 19 July at 1920 hours, TSK artillery shelled the villages of Maye, Ormana, and Ura, in Kanimasi, Amediye region. At 0200 hours on the same day, Turkish bombing began and did not end until 0720 hours. On 18 July at 1230 hours, Turkish aircraft bombed the Deraluk district, Nerwe and Rekane villages, also in the Amediye region.

Yesterday, I mentioned that the grenades found in the Ergenekon house in Istanbul Ümraniye had been traced to Şemdinli. Today, Radikal has a fairly long article on the subject. To make a long story short, the Ergenekon chief prosecutor Zekeriya Öz ordered an investigation into the grenades. That investigation shows that the grenades were seized in a police operation against Turkish Hezbollah in Şırnak, in 1999. There, the grenades were further linked to a TSK major, Mehmet Zekeriya Öztürk, an Ergenekon member who had been stationed in Şırnak from August 1997 to August 1999.

Yaşar Büyükanıt, now the chief of the Turkish general staff, served in The Southeast from 1997 to 2000. Like the Ergenekon grenades, Büyükanıt was also linked to the Şemdinli bombing when he admitted that he knew the bombers, TSK non-commissioned officers Ali Kaya and Özcan İldeniz. Büyükanıt said that he knew them and that they were "good boys". In fact, Büyükanıt knew them so well that when Van prosecutor Ferhat Sarıkaya tried to indict Büyükanıt for his involvement in the Şemdinli bombing, Sarıkaya was told to shut up, go away, and don't bother practicing law ever again.

Büyükanıt is also a party to the Dolmabahçe Deal with the AKP. And so the Deep State comes full circle.

TURKISH MILITARY: "GOOD BOYS" GO FREE

"I know that officer, we worked in the region together. He is not a kind to commit crime."
~ Yaşar Büyükanıt.

The Şemdinli murderers have been freed.

The two JIT officers and the "confessor" who were convicted to 39 years, 10 months and 27 days by Van's 3rd Heavy Penalty Court for manslaughter, forming a gang, and attempting manslaughter, have been released by the military court that was retrying their case. Apparently the military court does not believe that that the perpetrators of the Semdinli bombing will attempt to escape or that they have the ability to destroy evidence. The state's perpetrators were released during the first session of the military court. The court also decided to re-examine the evidence of the Şemdinli bombing until the court's next session. It also kindly invited the perpetrators to attend the second session.

Thus, those state organs which were trying to release the suspects from the very beginning, have achieved their end.

The lawyers for the victims left the court, saying they would not be a part of the game, since the military court is under the authority of Büyükanıt, who said of perpetrator Ali Kaya, "I know him; he's a good boy." With this statement, Büyükanıt intervened in the court's decision-making process--a violation of Article 288 of the Turkish Penal Code (attempting to influence the judiciary). Because Büyükanıt is at the top of the military hierarchy under which the court falls, the court will not come to a decision that contradicts Büyükanıt's statement.

Mark my words.

Basically, Büyükanıt's statement, which came immediately following the bombing, is a warning to everyone concerned in the case--including the courts--to keep out of the military's business. The example of Büyükanıt's interference with the judiciary should dispel any fears of democracy breaking out in Turkey and should confirm who it is that holds real power in Turkey.

Interference with judicial proceedings of the Şemdinli bombing case were two of the five concerns Amnesty International had regarding the handling of the case:

Interference in the investigation: After the 9 November bombing, a number of senior government and military officials made comments which Amnesty International regards as constituting direct interference in the course of the investigation of the incident. Among them, the Prime Minister made negative remarks regarding the credibility of witnesses to the incidents in Semdinli testifying on the events, and the Head of the Army publicly gave a positive character reference for one of the suspects. Amnesty International considers that judgements about the reliability of witnesses must be a matter for the court alone, and that discussions of the character of the accused must not be allowed to prejudice the course of the trial.

Amnesty International also notes that the General Chief of Staff [Hilmi Özkök] made laudatory comments about the Head of the Army [Yaşar Büyükanıt], while at the same time being responsible for a decision on whether or not the latter would be subject to an investigation by the military prosecutor on the basis of the information forwarded by the Van prosecutor (see the third concern). The Ministers of Justice and the Interior also commented publicly on the content of statements made by individuals interviewed by the Parliamentary Investigative Commission into the Semdinli incidents. One public official interviewed by the commission was subsequently removed from his position as Head of the Intelligence Bureau of the Security Directorate. Amnesty International is concerned that the Ministers’ comments may have discouraged public officials from sharing information with the Commission and may have contributed to prejudicing the final – and inconclusive – results of the commission’s investigation.

And:

Interference in the prosecution and independence of the judiciary: Shortly after the 92-page indictment had been submitted to the panel of judges at the Van Heavy Penal Court for their approval in early March 2006, the content of the indictment became a subject of intense discussion between the government and the military, with the General Chief of Staff seeking extraordinary meetings with the Prime Minister and the President. Amnesty International considers that on the basis of these actions and public statements made by different parties, the content of the indictment was deemed unacceptable to some senior authorities even before the court – invested with the authority to accept or reject it – had made its decision. Amnesty International considers that the merits or defiencies of an indictment prepared by a prosecutor should be a matter for the court alone to decide, and that the actions of the General Chief of Staff constituted a direct interference in the proper role of the prosecution as well as in the independence of the judiciary.

This should be a cut-and-dried case since the perpetrators were captured by local residents of Şemdinli as they fled the scene of the crime. The vehicle which the perpetrators drove was found to have been registered to Jandarma forces. Among the contents of the trunk were three Kalishnikovs, magazines for the Kalishnikovs, hand grenades, drawings of the bookstore and of Seferi Yılmaz's home. Additionally, an assassination list and ID cards of Pakistani citizens and receipts of the Iraqi Turkmen Front were found in the vehicle. Furthermore, the Şemdinli bombing was only one out of twenty that were carried out in Şemdinli and Yüksekova between July 2005 and 9 November 2005, the day of the Şemdinli bombing--a fact which was ignored in all the reporting about Şemdinli.

Remember the "confessions" of retired Turkish military officers such as Erdal Sarızeybek, and his book I Saw the Betrayal, or Altay Tokat. Both have admitted to committing acts of terror in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan against Kurdish civilians or civil servants.

We also need to recall the words of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the wake of the Şemdinli bombing: "We will follow up on this incident, no matter where it leads, and whoever has to pay the price will pay it." The release of the Şemdinli murderers today is another indicator of the close cooperation between the Islamists and the Paşas which was part of the deal reached by both that resulted in an Islamist resident of Çankaya Köşkü. In return, Büyükanıt's threat regarding the status of his "good boys" is heeded by all and the Paşas are allowed to continue their Dirty War in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan.

Meanwhile, back at Qendil, Murat Karayılan says that AKP Kurds are not Kurds, but you heard it here first. By now AKP's position vis-a-vis the Kurdish people should be clear from the track record it has in dealing with serious issues in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan . . . issues like Şemdinli.

PROBLEMS FOR THE PAŞAS

"While at the trial, the mission learned that the evidence uncovered during the investigation of the Umut bookstore bombing supports the claim that there are parties unaligned with Kurdish nationalism using unlawful political violence in the region. Further, the mission concluded that the events surrounding this particular incident —irrespective of the eventual verdict for or against the three accused— put into question the authorities’ will to carry out an effective investigation to uncover the real facts of the case."
~ KHRP, Semdinli Bombing Trial Observation Report.

Serhado has a new CD out, thanks to the hevals at KurdishInfo:

Serhados' "Xewna Jiyan" is now out in the stores both in Kurdistan and in Turkey.

22-year-old Serhado, was born in the Swedish capital of Stockholm with a blood-line originating from Midyad in the Merdin province of northern Kurdistan. He grew up with his mother, his older brother and younger sister in the segregated suburb of Sollentuna in Stockholm, not seeing much of his father during his childhood as his father was working for the Kurdish TV channel MED-TV in Belgium.

More at the link, plus a link to Serhado's website at which you can download one of the songs from the CD. Is Serhado, and the other Kurdish rappers, the dengbêj of Kurdistan's future? I would love to see interaction between the older generation of dengbêj and the younger because art and music, like history, does not have abrupt endings and beginnings. Nor do these things occur in a vacuum, but there is always some degree of continuity. Therefore it would be interesting to know how the young dengbêj draw upon tradition while embracing new and non-Kurdish forms of their art and what advice or comments the older dengbêj would have for the younger.

At zReportage, you can check out a new photo slide show of the women of PKK, in a short photo essay by Anastasia Taylor-Lind titled, "Kurdish Amazons." Click on the View Slide Show or you can view the photos individually (but in smaller format). Check out the kitten. As noted in the text that accompanies the photos, "With their camps in the mountains and an emphasis on education and equality, the PKK aims to offer an alternative model for Kurdish and Middle Eastern women." More on that from last November.


In a TDN article carried on KurdishInfo, it appears that military prosecutors have put their boots down on Nokta magazine, which broke the story of the paşa's diary and the two planned coups from 2004:

Police with search warrants on Friday raided a magazine that ran a story about two alledged coups planned in 2004 by senior officers in the military for possible information on an ongoing investigation.

The police closed all the entrances to the building before launching the search. The prosecutor's office in Istanbul's Bakırköy district acted on behalf of the military prosecutor's office.

CNN-Türk reported that the police were also searching for information linked a another case that involved a report prepared by the Office of the Chief of General Staff on the positions of various journalists and newspapers. The report was leaked to the press. Reports also said that the police were seizing the magazine's computers.

In the March 29 issue of the magazine, it was claimed that the commanders of the army, navy and the air force, together with the gendarmerie chief, planned two separate coups in 2004. The information was based on the supposed diaries of retired Navy Commander Özden Örnek, who denied owning such diaries.

The article claimed that the chief of general staff of the day, retired Gen. Hilmi Özkök, had opposed the top commanders.

Geez, what a shock!

While the raid and confiscations at Nokta are not surprising, shades of Ferhat Sarikaya and Semdinli in Amed certainly are surprising. According to a report in TNA, the Amed Bar Association will file a criminal complaint against Yaşar Paşa (Buyukanit) for interfering in the legal process of the Semdinli bombing investigation:

Diyarbakir Bar is preparing to file a criminal complaint against Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit claiming that his statements regarding the Semdinli Case may affect the judicial process.

Diyarbakir Bar head Sezgin Tanrikulu stated on Friday that referring opinions of the Chief of General Staff and his making statements frequently can only be explained with the unique character of Turkish democracy.

Buyukanit commented on Semdinli case at the press conference held on Thursday stating that the accusations targeted to Buyukanit have nothing to do with his personality, but the Turkish Armed Forces itself. "A legal murder was committed that will go down in history of law," said Buyukanit on Thursday.

". . . [U]nique character of Turkish democracy"--what a euphemism that is! More from the Gulf Times:

“The remarks by the chief of the General Staff (on Semdinli) were aimed at influencing the legal process,” the head of the Diyarbakir Bar Association Sezgin Tanrikulu said in a statement, announcing the decision to take legal action against Buyukanit.

The particular article of the TCK (Turkish penal code) that Tanrikulu is invoking is Article 288:

A person who explicitly makes a verbal or written declaration for the purpose of influencing the public prosecutor, judge, the court, expert witness or witnesses until the final judgement is given about an investigation or prosecution will be imprisoned for a term from six months to three years. If this offence is committed through the press or media, the penalty to be imposed shall be increased by one half.

Now, there have been journalists charged with Article 288 for simply writing about investigations or trials. Hrant Dink and others at Agos newspaper had been charged with Article 288. More on all of those charges at IFEX.

However, as Article 288 clearly states, you don't have to simply write about these things, but you can be charged for talking about them, too. In the case of Yaşar Paşa, the one person with the most power in Turkey, and whose every word is reported on in the Turkish press . . . well, since Yaşar Paşa knows all of this very well, then I think it can easily be argued that his offence was committed through the press and media and should result in the increased penalty.

Let's review what happened with Ferhat Sarikaya and the Semdinli investigation, including Yaşar Paşa's meddling in the affair, from HRW:

In late February, Sabri Uzun, Director of the Police Security Intelligence Bureau, raised concern about possible military involvement in the bombings in Şemdinli when he was questioned by a parliamentary commission. He indicated in coded but quite clear terms that the November 1 explosion had possibly been the work of people within the security forces, and expressed doubt that the gendarmes indicted for the bookshop attack could have been in Şemdinli without the knowledge of higher ranking officials, as claimed. Within a month Sabri Uzun was removed from his post. This administrative sanction appears to be an attempt to intimidate any other public officials who might be considering providing information to the parliamentary commission, or offering testimony in the Şemdinli prosecutions.

On March 3, 2006, the prosecutor in the Şemdinli bombing case, Mr Ferhat Sarıkaya, issued an indictment, in which he also proposed that further investigations be carried out to determine whether senior military officers had ordered the attack on the bookshop. The indictment suggested that a motive for the original killing may have been “[t]o bring the local [Kurdish] population to a state where it can be lured with ease into action … then exaggerating this threat beyond its true level, in order to prepare the way for violent measures by the state and to permit emergency rule to take precedence over the administrative system in the region … permitting security chaos in the region to be used to apply pressure on the political authority, and thereby … to frustrate Turkey’s fundamental political directions—the modernizing project, the EU process—and to protect the power and place of the core political/bureaucratic governing elite.” The indictment also referred by name to a general who had reportedly described one of the alleged perpetrators as “a good offıcer.” On March 20, the Office of the Chief of General Staff issued a statement that the indictment was “political … aiming to undermine the Turkish Armed Forces and the fight against terror,” and made a complaint against the prosecutor. By April 21, the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors had taken Prosecutor Sarıkaya off the case, removed him from his job, and stripped him of his status as a lawyer for “abuse of his duty and exceeding his authority.”

The general referred to by name was none other than Yaşar Paşa, Land Forces Commander at the time.

This is going to be very interesting to watch. Will the charges go through? Will Sezgin Tanrikulu go the way of Ferhat Sarikaya? Will every lawyer in Amed be rounded up and arrested à la DTP? Will the paşas resurrect their coup plans from 2004? Are Yaşar Paşa's brayings about an invasion of South Kurdistan a distraction from the charge of influencing the legal process?

Stay tuned.