Thus spoke some people: 'Punish the lieutenants... Move the Military Academy to Erzurum'

The demand for the dismissal of 5 lieutenants from the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), who crossed their swords and recited the Officer's Oath after the Military Academy graduation ceremony, declaring “We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal,” has deeply wounded the conscience of a vast majority of the nation.

However, just as with the Balyoz and February 28 conspiracies and the Montreux declaration by retired admirals, there are those who insistently demand the punishment of the lieutenants and even more.

At the forefront of these is the Association for the Defense of Justice (ASDER), which was co-founded by the late retired general Adnan Tanrıverdi—one of Erdoğan's chief security advisors after July 15 and the architect of the “new TSK”—alongside his famous SADAT.

Before Erdoğan, some of them asked, “Against whom were these swords drawn?” and demanded that “those who send messages to certain places by shouting the slogan ‘We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal’ be crushed, regardless of the cost”...

The ASDER management, which argued that remaining silent about the lieutenants' incident from the very first days would “set a precedent for similar meetings,” also issued a statement in recent days following the referral of the lieutenants to the High Disciplinary Board with a request for dismissal. They compiled what Minister of National Defense Yaşar Güler has said on the subject to date and decreed the following:

“Since the alleged crime is not crossing swords, reciting the oath, or saying 'We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal,' but rather a deliberate, organized, and planned act of indiscipline despite repeated warnings and orders, this action, in its most innocent form, also constitutes the crime of Disobedience Against a Group of Soldiers under the Military Penal Code. For this reason, we expect the indiscipline to be punished.”

NEW DELUSIONS FROM THAT NAME

Four days before the Kara Kuvvetleri Komutanlığı (Land Forces Command) High Disciplinary Board meeting, where the lieutenants' file will be discussed, another voice has risen from ASDER.

This voice, a former naval captain introduced two years ago by my journalist-writer colleague Barış Terkoğlu, was Dr. Vehbi Kara, who wrote for the Akit group for many years. Terkoğlu explained that he was dismissed from the TSK for “being a member of the Fetullah Gülen organization,” and that he also “wanted Atatürkism to be removed from the constitution and changes to be made to the first three articles, and opposed calling the war with Greece the ‘War of Independence’,” and that he “defended SADAT’s ‘bearded army’ project because ‘the Mehmetçik (Turkish soldier) did not look masculine enough’.”

Let us come to Dr. Vehbi Kara’s article dated January 12 regarding the lieutenants.

In his article titled “The Presidential Guard Regiment Exists for a Military Coup,” Kara stated that Turkey faces a military coup every 10 years and that the US has played the role of instigator in all of these coups, before touching upon the measures taken and that should be taken against coup plotters.

Arguing that the subordination of the General Staff to the Ministry of National Defense and other measures taken are important but cannot prevent the US from continuing its coup-plotting tradition, Kara demanded that “the military, especially armored units, be moved out of cities and relocated to strategic regions for the sake of national defense.”

Not stopping there, Kara complained that Erdoğan could not disband the Presidential Guard Regiment, which he claimed was among the units chosen by commanders for a military coup.

He made the following suggestion for the Military Academy, which he accused of “being the focal point of military coups for years”:

“The Military Academy must be moved out of the capital, Ankara, to places where the brave people of Anatolia reside. For this purpose, I think moving it to a city like Erzurum would be very appropriate.”

Judging by the trend, it won't be long before they say, “Disband the TSK entirely!”

THREE SOLDIERS, THREE PROMISES

We remember Teacher Lieutenant Colonel Ali Tatar, who gave his life in 2009 over the conspiracies against the TSK, don't we?

He had said, “If you continue this way, you will find neither an army to command nor a country and republic to live in.”

Well, do we remember Lieutenant Duabey Onur Öztürkmen, who fell as a martyr as a result of harassing fire opened by PKK terrorists during the Claw-Lock Operation carried out in northern Iraq two years ago? When he graduated from the Military Academy just 1 year prior, he had proudly said:

“We became officers to elevate our state to the level of contemporary civilizations in line with the principles and revolutions on the path opened by Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.”

His will was as follows:

“Give all my clothes to poor people. I know what poverty is. Tell my mother later. She cannot handle this news. I have a youth I could not live. One I could not go through properly.”

What about Lieutenant Colonel Gökhan Ünyeli, who committed suicide last March?!

In his farewell letter, he warned young officers and non-commissioned officers that “attacks on the honor of the Turkish soldier will increase even more,” that “there will be no military personnel left who are not tried or subjected to administrative measures,” and finally expressed his wish that “the Turkish Nation should once again embrace the Turkish Armed Forces, which are their own children.”

We could not protect our teachers who committed suicide because they were not appointed, our young people who were eliminated in interviews because they lacked connections, or our children who found the solution in going abroad... If only we could protect our lieutenants, and may this be a beginning!..

Müyesser YILDIZ

January 15, 2025