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Shall we try only the coup plotters?
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The suggestion of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, for the annulment of the Provisional Article 15 of the 1982 Constitution providing an efficient judicial immunity for the leaders of the 1980 coup, as well as members of the government and the Consultative Assembly that served during the coup period would perhaps serve no meaningful purpose if the ruling Justice and Development Party, or the AKP, parliamentary majority help to legislate it. Kenan Evren and his "comrades in coup" could not be brought in front of court even if the Provisional Article 15 was annulled.
First of all, bringing in front of justice a group of geriatric retired generals and the collaborators who are all in their 90s and many of them long dead, will not be possible because of their advanced age. Secondly, their crime was pardoned with the Provisional Article 15 in a plebiscite on the Constitution in 1982 and thus under the principle that constitutional articles and laws cannot be applied retrospectively, they will continue benefitting from the 1982 special constitutional amnesty they declared for themselves and approved by the nation.
Thus, annulment of Provisional Article 15 will not produce any result in that sense. However, getting rid of that article will have a symbolic meaning. If the article was annulled, that will be a declaration by the civilian parliament that those who staged coups or planning to stage coups in the future can pay a price for the crime they committed or might commit.
Indeed, if not tainted with a revanchist campaign against political opponents, secularists, Kemalists and patriots all rejecting categorically an Islamist drift in the country at the expense of secular and democratic republic adhering to the principle of supremacy of justice, the Ergenekon probe and the judicial case could serve as well as a "deterrent" against future coup attempts in the country. The prosecutors will soon submit to the court the third glossy indictment and perhaps increase the number of defendants within the case to around 200 or more. I am afraid the fourth, fifth and perhaps the tenth or further indictments will come in the months and years ahead and the number of people accused will exceed thousands while the number of pages of the indictments will reach several hundred thousand. Ergenekon probe is not only diluted with this wholesome "get all the opponents in" approach, but it has lost all its meaning as no one expects anything reasonable or meaningful come out of it one day. However, Turkey should not have missed this chance or wasted it in a revanchist campaign and must have been able to demonstrate that there is a resolved community, government and an opposition rejecting outright an intervention in politics at any cost. That would have been a great contribution to the advancement of democracy in this country.
Justice please!
However, the "? la carte" and self-catering democrats and liberals of this country have wasted precious opportunities of marching towards the democracy and human rights level of the European club of democracies by burying themselves in those revanchist struggles and attempting to create a justice and internal security system serving to their interest.
Is it not a fact that in today’s Turkey no charge could be brought against a senior member of the AKP or the Fethullah Gülen brotherhood gang or even if a charge could be made no force can take that prominent AKP or Gülen gang figure to a court?
Yes, all those involved in coups or caught in preparation of a coup must be brought to justice. Coup must be severely criminalized. But, at the same time we have to bring to justice those who have been torturing people during interrogations, at detention places, prisons or violating individual rights and freedoms or killing people in the back just because they did not heed to an order to stop. Yes, besides coup plotters, I want to see people who siphoned charity money donated by Turks abroad. Yes, I want the over 70-year-old Islamist writer who sexually assaulted an 14-year-old girl be adequately punished. Yes, I want the prime minister give an account how he established his wealth, how he managed to buy a ship to his son. Ys, I want to see a top AKP official who alleged (indeed documented) to have received a one million dollars bribe to help change the land development status of a lot.
Is it wrong to expect doctors, nurses and the health minister give an account in front of a judge for the death of 49 newborn babies at an Ankara hospital last year?
Shall we try only the coup plotters?
Thus, annulment of Provisional Article 15 will not produce any result in that sense. However, getting rid of that article will have a symbolic meaning. If the article was annulled, that will be a declaration by the civilian parliament that those who staged coups or planning to stage coups in the future can pay a price for the crime they committed or might commit.
Indeed, if not tainted with a revanchist campaign against political opponents, secularists, Kemalists and patriots all rejecting categorically an Islamist drift in the country at the expense of secular and democratic republic adhering to the principle of supremacy of justice, the Ergenekon probe and the judicial case could serve as well as a "deterrent" against future coup attempts in the country. The prosecutors will soon submit to the court the third glossy indictment and perhaps increase the number of defendants within the case to around 200 or more. I am afraid the fourth, fifth and perhaps the tenth or further indictments will come in the months and years ahead and the number of people accused will exceed thousands while the number of pages of the indictments will reach several hundred thousand. Ergenekon probe is not only diluted with this wholesome "get all the opponents in" approach, but it has lost all its meaning as no one expects anything reasonable or meaningful come out of it one day. However, Turkey should not have missed this chance or wasted it in a revanchist campaign and must have been able to demonstrate that there is a resolved community, government and an opposition rejecting outright an intervention in politics at any cost. That would have been a great contribution to the advancement of democracy in this country.
Justice please!
However, the "? la carte" and self-catering democrats and liberals of this country have wasted precious opportunities of marching towards the democracy and human rights level of the European club of democracies by burying themselves in those revanchist struggles and attempting to create a justice and internal security system serving to their interest.
Is it not a fact that in today’s Turkey no charge could be brought against a senior member of the AKP or the Fethullah Gülen brotherhood gang or even if a charge could be made no force can take that prominent AKP or Gülen gang figure to a court?
Yes, all those involved in coups or caught in preparation of a coup must be brought to justice. Coup must be severely criminalized. But, at the same time we have to bring to justice those who have been torturing people during interrogations, at detention places, prisons or violating individual rights and freedoms or killing people in the back just because they did not heed to an order to stop. Yes, besides coup plotters, I want to see people who siphoned charity money donated by Turks abroad. Yes, I want the over 70-year-old Islamist writer who sexually assaulted an 14-year-old girl be adequately punished. Yes, I want the prime minister give an account how he established his wealth, how he managed to buy a ship to his son. Ys, I want to see a top AKP official who alleged (indeed documented) to have received a one million dollars bribe to help change the land development status of a lot.
Is it wrong to expect doctors, nurses and the health minister give an account in front of a judge for the death of 49 newborn babies at an Ankara hospital last year?
Shall we try only the coup plotters?
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