Latest on the 'sword oath' crisis: The truth behind the WhatsApp messages

The "sword oath" ceremony left its mark on the Military Academy graduation held on August 30, 2024.

Following the graduation ceremony where the sword-crossing ritual took place, Lieutenant Ebru Eroğlu and five other lieutenants were referred to the High Disciplinary Board in November 2024.

Some posts shared on social media claimed that the images were WhatsApp correspondence between the lieutenants referred for disciplinary action.

THE CORRESPONDENCE TURNS OUT TO BELONG TO ANOTHER GROUP OF LIEUTENANTS FROM 2023

According to a report by Öyküm Hüma Keskin from teyit.org, visual search results indicate that these WhatsApp images belong to the correspondence of another group of lieutenants from 2023.

Allegations had surfaced in the press that a fight broke out at the Tuzla Infantry School during a commemoration ceremony held on November 10, 2023, between a group of lieutenants who did not pin pictures of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to their lapels and other lieutenants who reacted to them, and an investigation was launched into the events.

In connection with the same incident, allegations also surfaced that some soldiers at the Tuzla Infantry School were profiled with terms such as "enemy of Atatürk" or "cultist-sectarian" and were beaten on the grounds that they were praying.

The aforementioned WhatsApp correspondence also first appeared in the press on December 19, 2023, with the claim that it was related to the correspondence between the lieutenants under investigation at the Tuzla Infantry School.

The Ministry of National Defense announced on December 20, 2023, that an administrative and judicial investigation had been launched into the matter, that the responsible personnel had been temporarily suspended from duty, and that they had been referred to the High Disciplinary Board. With new evaluations concluded in February 2024, it was decided that some of the personnel involved in the incident would be permanently dismissed from the Turkish Armed Forces. The fact that the WhatsApp conversations in the dismissal decision of the lieutenants, which DW reached, contained the phrases "the sheikhs you worship like God..." proves that the correspondence images are related to this incident.

Furthermore, it can be seen in the correspondence images that the name of the WhatsApp group is "KHO 174th Term Graduates." However, Lieutenant Ebru Eroğlu and her classmates, who were alleged to have organized the "sword oath" ceremony on August 30, 2024, were graduates of the 175th term of the Military Academy.

News Source: 12punto