This is how I obtained the commander's photo!..

I wrote an article on August 20 after the appointments, promotions, and retirements within the Gendarmerie General Command were announced this year.

What was in the article?

A section from the book "Menzil'in Kasası" (The Safe of Menzil) by our young colleague İsmail Arı, who is known for his reports regarding allegations of Menzil sect structuring within the Gendarmerie organization…

Various news reports and incidents published in the national media concerning Gendarmerie-sect relations…

The appointment of a provincial gendarmerie commander, who was seen participating in AKP election campaigns, to the Gendarmerie General Command Inspection and Evaluation Presidency with the new decree…

Certain allegations regarding appointment criteria within the Gendarmerie…

Various behind-the-scenes information regarding the new Gendarmerie General Commander, General Ali Çardakçı, and his deputy, General Hüseyin Kurtoğlu…

And we also recounted that during the fourth hearing on June 11 of the case heard at the Ankara 43rd Criminal Court of First Instance regarding the "Atatürk and Vahdettin" dispute between Gendarmerie Captain C.H. and a sergeant, C.H.'s lawyer, Serdar Öztürk, alleged that Gendarmerie General Commander Çardakçı was from the "Menzil sect" and stated, "If he has an objection, I will face him anywhere."

Although lawyer Serdar Öztürk explicitly stated Çardakçı's name, I coded the name in the article I wrote on June 17 titled "Is General A.Ç. from the Menzil sect?" after that hearing.

It could have happened that this section might not have been included in the SEGBİS (Audio and Video Information System) transcript. However, since Attorney Öztürk's statements were included in the record, I specified in the August 20 article that the name I had coded as "A.Ç." was Ali Çardakçı.

EXACTLY 5 'CRIMES' EMERGED FROM THIS ARTICLE

It is because of this article that I was summoned to the Police Department last week to give a statement.

Because the Gendarmerie General Command filed a criminal complaint against me with the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on September 12.

According to the criminal complaint filed by the Head of Legal Services on behalf of Commander General Ali Çardakçı; with this article, I have committed the crimes of "publicly insulting a public official due to their duty, publicly disseminating misleading information to the public, and slander," as well as "insulting the Turkish Nation, the Republic of Turkey, and the State's institutions and bodies."

In the criminal complaint, which requested the investigation of the "suspect or suspects regarding the matter" along with images related to the article on 12punto, my personal website, and my Facebook account, the evaluations made—including the section in İsmail Arı's book, news reflected in the media, and the allegation voiced by Attorney Serdar Öztürk at the hearing—are summarized as follows:

"It is clear that the insulting and untrue factual allegations, which constitute an attack on the honor, dignity, and respectability of Gendarmerie General Commander General Ali Çardakçı—who was appointed by the President, is obligated to protect the interests of the state in all circumstances, is aware that the only authority to be affiliated with under the institutional umbrella must be the Republic of Turkey, has received the necessary training for this, has sole loyalty and allegiance to the Republic of Turkey, and is only subordinate to his hierarchical superiors—constitute the crimes of insulting a public official due to their duty and slander... The expressions such as 'The Gendarmerie General Command is currently a fortress for Menzil... For example, the gendarmerie stands at the entrance of the Menzil village, but that gendarmerie is already serving Menzil... It appears that a balance was tried to be established with Kurtoğlu, who belongs to another sect, against the allegations of Menzil structuring in the Gendarmerie' constitute the crime of publicly disseminating misleading information to the public, as they were used with the intent to weaken the bond between the state and the citizen and the feeling that individuals live in a society of law, by using manipulative allegations and provocative expressions, and are of a nature to disrupt public order by creating anxiety, fear, or panic among the public... By alleging that General Ali Çardakçı, who is the commander of the entire Gendarmerie organization within the hierarchical structure of the Gendarmerie General Command, belongs to a certain structure, it creates the perception that he acts biasedly at every stage of his public duty and that his obligation of loyalty to the state is violated; since it is obvious that this situation carries no other motive than to intentionally and publicly insult the institutional personality, reputation, and respectability of the Gendarmerie General Command, which is a deep-rooted law enforcement agency of our state, and to create a false and misleading perception in the public, it constitutes the crimes of insulting the Turkish Nation, the Republic of Turkey, and the State's institutions and bodies..."

It is important that General Ali Çardakçı denies the allegations that he is a "Menzilist" thanks to this criminal complaint. We are also pleased that he and other public officials are solely loyal to the authority of the Republic of Turkey.

Lest I forget; there is a fifth crime extracted from our aforementioned article.

I have also committed the crime of "unlawfully providing or obtaining personal data" by "sharing his uniformed photograph, which is in the nature of personal data, without the explicit consent of the honorable Gendarmerie General Commander General Ali Çardakçı."

You would think that there aren't hundreds of photos of General Ali Çardakçı on the internet, primarily on the Gendarmerie General Command's website and Google, and that I broke into his house and stole it or took it secretly somewhere!..

Let's see what the prosecutor's office will say about these absurd accusations.

Müyesser YILDIZ

October 14, 2024