Kemalist secularism in its death throes. Nothing now stands between Erdogan and the Sharia state he wants to establish. “Ä°stanbul court issues arrest warrant for propaganda website generals,” from Today’s Zaman, August 8 (thanks to Joshua):
An Ä°stanbul court on Monday issued arrest warrants for 14 suspects, including seven senior generals, as part of an investigation into allegations that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) had set up websites to disseminate anti-government propaganda.
An indictment in the case was accepted by the Ä°stanbul 13th High Criminal Court late last month and the prosecutor requested an arrest warrant for the 14 suspects implicated in the case immediately after the indictment was accepted by the court.
The court on Monday accepted the request and ordered the arrest of the suspects, which include former 1st Army Commander retired Gen. Hasan IÄŸsız, Maj. Gen. Mustafa Bakıcı, the General Staff’s legal counsel Maj. Gen. Hıfzı Çubuklu, Lt. Gen. Mehmet Eröz, Vice Adm. Mehmet OtuzbiroÄŸlu and Lt. Gen. Ä°smail Hakkı Pekin. Aegean Army Corp Commander Gen. Nusret TaÅŸdeler, who was recently appointed head of the Education and Doctrine Command (EDOK) in Ankara, is also among the suspects. A total of 22 suspects are implicated in the indictment.
The court also decided on a request by the prosecutor of the case, Cihan Kansız, to merge the case with another trial on an alleged coup d’état plot, which its creators dubbed the Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism. The court ruled to merge the two cases.
The content of the websites indicates that they were used as part of the Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism allegedly drafted by Çiçek. Çiçek’s suspected plan of action details a military plan to destroy the image of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the faith-based Gülen movement in the eyes of the public, play down the Ergenekon investigation and gather support for members of the military arrested as part of the investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine organization nested within the state and bureaucracy accused of plotting to overthrow the government. The plot is believed to have been prepared by Col. Dursun Çiçek, who is currently in prison on coup charges.
Col. Çiçek, whose signature appears both on an order concerning illegal military websites and on the action plan, said recently that he had been ordered by higher-ranking officers to create the anti-government websites….