ARİF TEKDAL
Ali Aslan Kılıç contributed to this report
Today’s Zaman
The arrest of four prosecutors and a gendarmerie commander involved in the search »»
ANKARA – The arrest of four prosecutors and a gendarmerie commander involved in the search of Syria-bound trucks that were found to belong to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) in January 2014 has added to concerns about the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.
Former Adana Chief Public Prosecutor Süleyman Bağrıyanık, former Adana Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Ahmet Karaca, Adana Prosecutors Aziz Takçı and Özcan Şişman and former Adana provincial gendarmerie commander Col. Özkan Çokay are facing charges of “attempting to topple or incapacitate the Turkish government through the use of force or coercion and obtaining and exposing information regarding the security and political activities of the state,” as reported by Turkish media.
The prosecutors were earlier suspended from duty in a government-orchestrated move to hush up scandalous revelations that were leaked by an anonymous social media user. The orders were issued by the Tarsus 2nd High Criminal Court at the request of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) chief inspector.
Mahmut Tanal, an İstanbul deputy for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), talked to Today’s Zaman on Thursday to express his grief over the way that the rule of law is being eroded in Turkey, saying, “They [the government] are removing justice, the pillar of the state, for the survival of the ruling party.”
Tanal continued: “The laws prescribing the detentions of judges and prosecutors show the need for crimes necessitating aggravated sentencing. The judges are rendering decisions on the cases that are put in front of them according to the law. The prosecutors did what needed to be done after they received the tip-off.”
“They’ve [the government] detained law enforcement personnel. They’ve detained judges, prosecutors. They’ve detained journalists, bureaucrats and scientists. They wanted to bully the public with these detainments. Even in Nazi Germany judges and prosecutors were not detained for the decision they made, but in Turkey they are,” he said.
Former prosecutor Mete Göktürk also spoke to Today’s Zaman, criticizing the arrest of the four prosecutors linked to the investigation of the MİT trucks. “It is clear that these arrests are blatant attacks on the independence of the judiciary and have not been done in the name of the law,” he said.
Göktürk continued: “The independence of the judiciary is necessary for citizens hoping to find justice, not judges. The loss of judicial independence will erode [people’s] faith in the law. I condemn [these acts]. Everywhere in the world, people in the judiciary are watching and condemning [these acts].”
MİT trucks understood to be transporting munitions to Syria stopped in Adana, Hatay
On Jan. 1, 2014 a mysterious truck en route to Syria was stopped by police in the provinces of Adana and Hatay after prosecutors received an anonymous tip-off. However, the police were made to transfer the investigation to the gendarmerie because the police had stopped the truck in an area that was outside its jurisdiction. The truck was allegedly transporting arms and munitions and was being escorted by Turkish intelligence officers.
According to claims, the gendarmerie discovered ammunition and weapons as well as humanitarian aid in an initial search of the truck. Hatay Governor Celalettin Lekesiz, who had reportedly been informed of the incident, instructed the gendarmerie not to search the truck. Three more Syria-bound trucks operated by MİT were stopped in Ceyhan, a district of the southern province of Adana, on Jan. 19, 2014. The trucks belonging to MİT were allegedly transporting arms shipments to opposition groups in Syria, including al-Qaeda.
Then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said during a television program at the time that the trucks were carrying aid to Turkmens in Syria. On the program, Erdoğan appeared to be particularly angry with the prosecutor for having instructed the content of the trucks to be recorded on video and described the search of the trucks as “treason.” Syrian-Turkmen Assembly Vice Chairman Hussein al-Abdullah said in January 2014 no trucks carrying aid had arrived from Turkey.
Many high-level Turkish officials, including then-President Abdullah Gül said, the cargo of the trucks was a “state secret,” which led some to speculate that the trucks were carrying arms. Turkish law prohibits arms exports to Syria.
The truck that police stopped between Kırıkhan and Reyhanlı near the Syrian border allegedly belonged to an aid organization called the Humanitarian Aid Foundation (İHH), though the İHH strongly rejected any link to the truck in a written statement.
Prosecutor Bağrıyanık: whatever the decision, I’m behind the case
Former Adana Chief Public Prosecutor Süleyman Bağrıyanık, who initiated the investigation based on an anonymous tip-off before being appointed to Antalya and then suspended, was detained at his home in Antalya on Wednesday evening. As he was being detained, Bağrıyanık told reporters: “If I were a terrorist and if I had really committed a crime, they would never touch me. I just did what the law told me. I am the child of a farming family. Police arrived at my door after news reports emerged [about orders to detain me]. This is shameful. I am a person who has served as a prosecutor for this country for years.”
“Thank god we [prosecutors] are not those people who have committed treason against their country. This scenario is even worse than that of Yeşilçam [Turkish cinema] scripts that were made for commercial purposes. They [prosecutors] can ask me anything they like. I never stray from the boundaries of the law. Whatever my views were in my career will never change,” he said as he was being detained.
Bağrıyanık also said: “Whatever the decision is, whatever they do, I’m behind this case. There have been criminal complaints regarding myself. The inspectors wanted my deposition. I didn’t see the complaints published in the media, as part of the accusations [put forward in court]. God has given me one life. You can finish your life in an unrespectable way or you can finish your life in a respectable way. I [prefer to] go and serve my time.”
Bağrıyanık criticized his detainment on Wednesday evening, saying: “I am comfortable today, from the very beginning. I have always implemented the law. We’re not bandits; we are not brigands. I am going to turn myself in. It’s not as if we [prosecutors] are going to run away.”
Lawyers from the Antalya Bar Association also came to Bağrıyanık’s house to show their solidarity with him.
Prosecutor Şişman: acting this way to a state prosecutor is against the law
Prosecutor Özcan Şişman was also detained at his home in Adana by police on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters as he was taken for a medical check-up after his detention, Şişman said it is a crime to treat a state prosecutor in such a way.
Şişman was referred to the Tarsus Second High Criminal Court on Thursday along with former Adana Public Prosecutor Süleyman Bağrıyanık after being taken through a medical examination the night before. While in custody, Şişman said: “There are allegations that I have engaged in acts of espionage. For years I conducted investigations into terror and espionage. I don’t know what I’m being charged with. To act in this way towards a public prosecutor is against the law. Those who did this will bear the penalty of this.”
Former Adana Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Ahmet Karaca, one of the prosecutors in charge of the case of the MİT trucks, also handed himself in at a courthouse on Thursday while on duty in Turkey’s southeastern Gaziantep province.
Leaked documents show trucks personally authorized by Erdoğan
In 2014, leaked military documents showed that the transportation of arms to Syria in three trucks was personally authorized by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when he was prime minister.
According to one document, then-Adana Governor Hüseyin Avni Coş rushed to the scene when Takçı ordered gendarmerie units to search and seize the three trucks, which were found to contain arms and ammunition. The governor was quoted as saying, “The trucks were moving under the orders of the prime minister [Erdoğan] and he would never allow any interference into these trucks, even if that costs him his life.”
On Jan. 20, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç labeled key documents revealed about national MİT trucks “pieces of paper,” belittling their importance. Speaking after an eight-and-a-half-hour Cabinet meeting chaired by Erdoğan at the presidential palace, Arınç argued that the documents related to the claims that MİT trucks had illegally transported arms involving illegal arms shipments to opposition groups in Syria, including al-Qaeda, had been fabricated. “They are trying to deceive the world via ‘pieces of paper’ that were signed by some people based on no concrete information or documents. It is totally fake,” he stated.