The General-Major dispute has spiraled out of control!...

The dispute between a general, who serves as the Garrison Commander of a major province, and a major under his command—which initially resulted in the major's dismissal from the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK)—continues to unfold with interesting developments.

To summarize the beginning of the incident;

General D.A. initiated both a disciplinary investigation against Major E.Ş. and filed a criminal complaint with the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office for "threatening and insulting a superior officer," alleging that the major had insulted him through anonymous posts on the Chat-In application. Furthermore, under the "Law on the Protection of Family and Prevention of Violence Against Women," he applied to the Family Court to have Major E.Ş. issued a 2-month order "not to approach his residence, workplace, relatives, or children, and not to disturb him via communication devices or any other means" and obtained a ruling to that effect.

While the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office prepared an indictment against E.Ş., the disciplinary investigation, which was conducted entirely based on this indictment, recommended E.Ş.'s dismissal from the TSK. The Land Forces Command High Disciplinary Board subsequently decided to dismiss E.Ş.

The first hearing of the criminal case filed by the General was held on June 26. However, the General did not attend this hearing and requested to provide testimony in a private session. Meanwhile, lawyers Serdar Öztürk and İbrahim Yılmaz, representing the former Major E.Ş., requested that Lieutenant Colonel S.T., who witnessed the events at the headquarters, be brought to court to testify. The court, however, rejected this request. After the hearing, Colonel S.M., who works under General D.A., called Lieutenant Colonel S.T. on the phone and asked, "Lieutenant Colonel, did you go to court today? What's going on? Were you going to say something?"

E.Ş.'s lawyers subsequently filed a criminal complaint against General D.A. and Colonel S.M. for "attempting to influence a fair trial" in connection with this incident.

HOW DID HE OBTAIN THE WHATSAPP MESSAGES?

Before reporting on the second development, let us share the details regarding the investigation process.

The Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of the province where the General serves sent an instruction to the prosecutor's office in Major E.Ş.'s new place of duty, requesting that a decision be obtained from the Criminal Judgeship of Peace to seize E.Ş.'s smartphone under the scope of "cases where delay is prejudicial," along with his testimony. Following this letter, an investigation was launched against E.Ş. five days later, and the Criminal Judgeship of Peace issued a seizure order for the phone.

According to E.Ş.'s lawyers, it was interesting that in an investigation initiated with simple accusations such as "threatening or insulting a superior or commander" as regulated in the Military Penal Code, a smartphone—which contains data related to private life and is considered a computer under Supreme Court rulings—was seized in an almost tailor-made fashion via a prosecutor's instruction sent from another city. Furthermore, what constituted the "case where delay is prejudicial" was never explained.

Following the seizure, a copy was obtained and sent to the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of the province where the General serves. The Chief Public Prosecutor's Office then forwarded it to the Cyber Crimes Division of the Police Department, requesting an examination of all folders on the phone, a check to see if any messages were sent to General D.A., and an investigation into whether any alleged insulting remarks could be found, even if they had been deleted from the phone's content.

In the report prepared as a result of the detailed examination, no findings related to the alleged insulting remarks were encountered; instead, only notes that Major E.Ş. had taken for his defense or sent to his lawyer were included.

The report also contained no findings regarding who E.Ş. had communicated with via phone or WhatsApp; indeed, the Prosecutor's Office had not made any such request.

The reason we emphasize this detail is as follows:

General D.A., through his lawyer, applied to the Land Forces Command, reporting that Major E.Ş. had accessed call records with a soldier named M.Ç.E., who was unrelated to the case, based on the aforementioned examination report. He filed a complaint against both E.Ş. and M.Ç.E., requesting that they be subjected to disciplinary action.

In his statement, General D.A. also claimed that he had information that the two individuals had "spoken on the phone countless times before or after certain WhatsApp shares, were in contact, and acted together."

Following this, a disciplinary investigation was launched against E.Ş. and M.Ç.E. E.Ş. was asked whether he had "acted in concert with M.Ç.E." Ultimately, it was decided that they had not acted in concert.

Following this incident, lawyer İbrahim Yılmaz filed a 600,000 lira compensation lawsuit against General D.A., arguing that it was impossible for the information regarding E.Ş. speaking or meeting with M.Ç.E. before or after the WhatsApp shares to have been obtained from the examination report, and that the data in question had been acquired through illegal means.

Attorney Yılmaz emphasized that as a result of the complaint petition General D.A. sent to the Land Forces Command, information regarding E.Ş.'s private life reached many military units, and it is also unclear what other information may have been accessed, "It is evident that the image of the seized phone was either provided to D.A. under the table in violation of the law, or that D.A. gained access to an un-destroyed image of the phone." stating this, he demanded that those responsible for these actions be identified and punished.

Attorney Yılmaz further noted that the information General D.A. declared could only be possible through "the detection, interception, and recording of communications" measures, whereas only the "search, copying, and seizure of computers, computer programs, and logs" measure was applied to E.Ş., pointing out that E.Ş.'s communications may have been recorded by resorting to a measure not present in the investigation file in violation of the law, and requested that this possibility also be investigated.

Let us note that as a result of this lawsuit, the Ankara 27th Civil Court of First Instance first wrote to the Land Forces Command requesting the disciplinary investigation file opened against E.Ş. and M.Ç.E. upon the request of General D.A., and let us move on to another criminal complaint.

DECISION REACHED IN 13 DAYS 

Attorney İbrahim Yılmaz also filed a criminal complaint with the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of that province, which had ordered the report, against the two police officers at the Cyber Crimes Branch Directorate who examined the phone and included E.Ş.'s defense notes in their report, as well as the forensic informatics officer, alleging that they "violated the privacy of private life and abused their duty by laying out the defense plans before General D.A." and requested that an investigation be opened.

Concluding the investigation in just 13 days, the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office issued a decision of "no grounds for prosecution," reasoning that E.Ş.'s notes were not notes from meetings with his lawyer but rather notes he had taken for himself, and furthermore, that "since the personnel conducting the examination do not have the authority to exercise discretion regarding elements other than the evidence requested in the instruction, they are obligated to report everything that is likely to be evidence."

Müyesser YILDIZ

July 25, 2025