Is the Turkish Military Getting a Fair Trial?

When something is complicated, and the facts are contested, people oftentimes wait quietly for clarity to emerge. To wit, Turks for the most part have remained silent since the judiciary began putting active and retired officers behind bars to await trial for suspected involvement in Ergenekon, an alleged “terrorist organization” seeking to overthrow the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. The Turks’ silence is a clear sign of an impasse and possible loss of trust in the military.

“As a retired member of the Turkish military, I attest to you that I am totally disappointed at our nation’s ignorance to the trial process of my colleagues,” Ihsan Aygun, a retired air force brigadier general, recently told Al-Monitor. “I even now question myself as to whether it was worth risking my life for this nation!” Aygun and others have consistently maintained that the Ergenekon trial process has been politicized by a revenge-driven Islamist-based government determined to end “Ataturk’s Turkey.”

In a televised interview on Jan. 25, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed concern that the military has been demoralized at a critical juncture in the fight against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) due to the lengthy pretrial detention of hundreds of military officers.

“There are now close to 400 retired and serving officers [in jail]. The most serious are accused of forming terror organizations or belonging to one. If the charges for these are certain, then finish the job,” Erdogan said. “But if there isn’t certainty, then the hundreds of officers should be treated accordingly. This affects the entire morale of the Turkish armed forces. How can these people then fight terror?”