The Lieutenants… The Band Lieutenant Colonel… The Turkish Aeronautical Association

National Defense Minister Yaşar Güler, who met with Ankara representatives of media organizations yesterday to evaluate the year 2024, once again expressed a prejudgment—that is, he stated his opinion as the approving authority—regarding the fate of the lieutenants who are facing expulsion from the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) on charges of "indiscipline" for crossing their swords and saying, "We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal" after their official graduation ceremony.

Minister Güler stated the following:

"The preservation and maintenance of established discipline in the Turkish Armed Forces is indispensable. We have stated many times that we have looked at the incident from the perspective of discipline from the very beginning. The issue is not about reciting an oath that has been abolished or saying 'We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal,' but about committing a deliberate, organized, and planned act of indiscipline despite the warnings of superiors. The investigation and inquiry conducted regarding the incident have nothing to do with the text recited or its content. In the disciplinary investigation, no lieutenant was asked about the content of the text or why they said, 'We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal.' What is important here is that, regardless of the content, the disciplinary process will always be operated in the same way and discipline will never be compromised. The High Disciplinary Board process is ongoing. The board has not yet made its decision. It is not appropriate to express a definitive opinion at this stage. Let us all wait for the result together."

If only they had shown the courage to ask the lieutenants a question like, "Why did you say 'We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal'?"!..

IS THERE AN ORDER OR NOT?

The investigation has nothing to do with this or their recitation of the Officer's Oath, which was removed from the regulations, but they allegedly committed an act of "indiscipline."

How did they do it?

Despite the warnings of their superiors, they organized that ceremony among themselves in a "deliberate, organized, and planned" manner.

Let us underline this again and again.

Did the lieutenants obey the order of their commanders that "The Officer's Oath will not be recited at the official ceremony"? They did.

Well, they gathered and did it afterwards, even though their "immediate superiors did not give permission."

It was understood within the scope of the investigation that their superiors were unaware of what the lieutenants would do after the official ceremony; that is the first point.

The lieutenants are being sought for expulsion on the grounds that they "did not obey orders," and their commanders are being sought for expulsion on the grounds of "why didn't you give an order for after the ceremony, why didn't you prevent it?"; that is the second point.

In other words, one side is being accused of an order that was not given, and the other side is being accused of not fulfilling this order that was not given.

That is why this meaningless process cannot be resolved, and they are trying to find evidence and witnesses.

National Defense Minister Yaşar Güler himself announced that the High Disciplinary Board (YDK) would meet on November 25, but it did not happen…

When the lieutenants' files reached the YDK, it was seen that the superiors at the Artillery School, where the top-ranking graduate Ebru Eroğlu and another lieutenant were trained, did not write their opinions in the conclusion section of the report. Upon this, the files of the two lieutenants were returned with the instruction, "Clarify your opinion. Write that their referral to the YDK with the request for their separation from the TSK is appropriate." This "deficiency" was corrected, and the files were sent back to the YDK.

Meanwhile, it emerged that they wanted to have the lieutenants who went to the Tuzla Infantry School sign a text whose content was not shown to them. It was claimed that the text in question was "a confession that the lieutenants held a meeting one day before the oath ceremony and made a decision on this matter." We learned in recent days that a similar attempt was made at other branch schools as well.

We also announced recently that, in addition to the 5 lieutenants whose expulsion from the TSK is requested, some of the other lieutenants who participated in the ceremony were sent "warnings," and some were asked for their defense for "disobedience to orders."

The letter sent to the lieutenants who were asked for their defense for "disobedience to orders" reportedly said:

"It has been determined that although the Battalion Commander gave you an order, you did not leave the area after the ceremony and joined the group that gathered with the announcement of the top-ranking graduate, and you performed the oath that was not in the program; it has been evaluated that this constitutes the indiscipline of 'disobedience to orders'."

Come on, try to make sense of this!.. Wasn't the "crime" of the commanders "not giving orders and not taking the necessary precautions"? Wasn't their expulsion requested for this reason as well?!

WARNING PENALTY FOR THE ARTILLERY SCHOOL COMMANDER

On this occasion, let us share an allegation regarding the Artillery School, where the top-ranking graduate of the period, Ebru Eroğlu, was trained, which has nothing to do with the issue of the lieutenants' expulsion.

There were quite a few complaints about the School Commander regarding other matters. So much so that one staff member wrote a letter to the Land Forces Command three times. No action was taken. Upon this, a fourth letter was written, and when it was said, "If the necessary action is not taken, we will share this with the public," an administrative investigation was launched in a hurry, and the School Commander was given a "warning" penalty.

"MENZIL" PROPAGANDA AT THE MINISTRY OF NATIONAL DEFENSE

In the first days when the lieutenants' ceremony was being discussed, we brought to the agenda a complaint that had been put into an official petition at the Ministry of National Defense on September 1.

The petition belonged to a Band Lieutenant Colonel working at the Ministry. According to his claim, he warns a specialist sergeant who shares the same room when he engages in "religious sermon" rhetoric. The specialist not only responds by saying, "You don't know jurisprudence, that's why you are ignorant," but also walks towards the officer. After a while, one of the civilian administrators of the Ministry of National Defense calls the officer to his room and scolds him with a "mafia-like sitting and speaking style." The officer recounts these events and makes the following request from the Ministry:

"I believe that I am being subjected to mobbing by acting within the scope of the Menzil sect or another parallel structure in this regard. I request that the necessary disciplinary investigation be conducted on the subject and the necessary administrative actions be taken regarding the mentioned personnel."

After us, Saygı Öztürk from Sözcü brought the same issue to the agenda twice, on September 3 and 14, explaining that the Lieutenant Colonel was assigned to Şırnak against his own will and was given to the "Religious Affairs and Morale Branch Directorate" at the unit there, first asking the question, "Let's see if the Ministry of National Defense will take a step on this matter?" In his second article, he said, "If there were [an investigation], it would have been announced."

But not a sound came from the Ministry of National Defense, which is working tooth and nail on the expulsion of the lieutenants, regarding this incident that took place in the Ministry. I wonder why?

AN INTERESTING STORY FROM THE TRUSTEE TO THE MAJOR GENERAL

We are talking about the AKP appointing trustees to municipalities; we have an institution that is breaking records in the practice of trustees.

The Turkish Aeronautical Association (THK), founded by Atatürk in 1925, has been under trustee management since 2019.

Supposedly, the first board of trustees was going to reorganize the institution and take the THK to an ordinary congress. It didn't happen; a new board of trustees was appointed 1 year ago. They also have no intention of taking the THK to an ordinary congress.

Kemal Yurtnaç, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees appointed last year, is someone who has served as a Prime Ministry Advisor and Governor of Yozgat. Yurtnaç, who is still a Chief Civil Inspector at the Ministry of Interior, is a name who was an AKP parliamentary candidate nominee for Tokat in 2015.

Last Friday, Kemal Yurtnaç had an important guest.

This guest was Pilot Major General Selçuk Aygün, Head of Evaluation and Inspection of the Air Force Command. It was announced that during the meeting, "the history of the Turkish Aeronautical Association approaching its 100th year and the contributions of this process to Turkish aviation were emphasized, and the strengthening of cooperation between the two institutions and joint projects for the development of aviation" were discussed.

What was most striking was that Trustee Chairman Yurtnaç gifted a letter "Elif" to Pilot Major General Selçuk Aygün. 

Anyway, let us continue to talk about the lieutenants who shook the TSK with the "indiscipline" they committed!..

Müyesser YILDIZ

December 16, 2024