That’s enough; will anyone not apologize for the memo?

Since I am offended deeply, I wanted to scream: "What a shame. As though what you have done is not enough, now you are playing the three monkeys..." Especially this doesn’t suit to Karadayı at all. Until today, I have never used the andıç (memos secretly ordered to be collected upon us) case. And I have not thought of it much because I don’t live in the past. I always look to the future. Though I’d been through the worst days of my life, I have no enmity against Gen. Çevik Bir. And perhaps he is regretful today after looking back to see what he had done in the past. And perhaps, he says, "I’d acted foolishly."

Do you know what pissed me off?

A top military commander acts now as if he doesn’t know anything about the memo incident. Even a person who doesn’t know much about how the Turkish General Staff functions knows that such a first order planning cannot be done outside the chief’s knowledge.

If Mr. Karadayı wonders, let me tell who does such work É The Secretary General Erol Özkasnak of the period in a speech he delivered at the funeral ceremony of a colonel said in front of the cameras, "Traitors like Cengiz Çandar and Mehmet Ali Birand are living among us." I sent a wire of complaint; he screamed out at me and said "How dare you to send a wire to the chief of General Staff?" I lost control and said, "Who do you think you are?" then threw the phone in my hand to the wall and crushed it into pieces. What if I tell you that the same person repeatedly called Erol Aksoy, then the owner of the Show TV, told him, "I am calling on behalf of my commander. We don’t want to see Mehmet Ali Birand’s program the ’32nd Day’ on the screen." Aksoy is still around. Ask him, he will tell you all about.

The person whom Özkasnak referred as "my commander" was the 2nd Chief of General Staff Çevik Bir. Do you want some more witnesses? Ask Zafer Mutlu, editor-in-chief of the daily Sabah at that period. Ask Fatih Çekirge, Ankara bureau chief of the daily Sabah at the time. They will tell you who said what.

I have kept ignoring for 10 years, but that’s enough indeed. Ten years have passed and none of the chiefs of the General Staff was polite enough to express an apology. As if what had happened were so natural and as if all could’ve been done again if needed. All turned a blind eye on the memo incident.

And now it’s being discussed who issued the order then. That’s enough.

You should at least admit that you made a mistake then.I expected of Karadayı to do this much. He, as a mature and elderly commander, could’ve closed the old pages. Even if he has not done it, has the chief of today not thought about it? Wouldn’t it be nice of the current Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ to talk about this unfortunate incident and apologize from all the aggrieved and to tell that some mistakes had been made? Such a gesture doesn’t lower the Turkish Armed Forces, or TSK, if not makes it greater.