Former Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Özkök, who on Thursday attested as a witness in the current Ergenekon tribulation, has admitted the beingness of coup plots nicknamed “Ayışığı” (Moonlight) and “Yakamoz” (Sea Sparkle) during his term of leadership, but told he didn’t take any action at law regarding them because he was unsure of their authenticity.
“In the spring of 2004, I was given a CD including the displays of [alleged coup plans] ‘Ayışığı’ and ‘Yakamoz. ‘ They could have been disinformation or they could have been real. I didn’t share this matter even with my seniors. As the chief of General Staff, I had to be conservative. … As Ayışığı and Yakamoz weren’t legitimate documents, I didn’t take any [action at law,” he stated.
The İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court, which is seeing the Ergenekon case, declared last week that Özkök would be proving, and the former military chief came to the Silivri Prison Complex early on Thursday to assist to the 213th hearing of the trial.
Ergenekon is a shaded criminal network with alleged associates to the state, mistrusted of platting to topple the government.
Ayışığı and Yakamoz are 2 of the coup diagrams remarked in the diary of former navy Commander Adm. Özden Örnek. In April 2007, weekly news magazine Nokta issued extracts from a journal it laid claim belonged to Örnek, which contained details of coup attempts going back to 2004. An investigating was set in motion following the allegement — not into Örnek and his coup plans, but into Nokta Editor-in-Chief Alper Görmüş. The weekly news magazine was close down several weeks after a police raid on its offices. Nevertheless, the journal was included in the second indictment in the Ergenekon trial in 2009, after a technical examination of the extracts published by Nokta affirmed that they were trustworthy.
Calling the allegements in the plans serious, Özkök told he considered taking action at law against those behind the plans, but yielded not to rock the confidence between him and his seniors.
“The posts in which we engage are very significant posts. For example, there are 300,000 citizenry under the command of the land forces commander. Lack of assurance in the people under your command could result in big troubles. It wasn’t potential for me to take any action at law on a written document about of whose authenticity and legitimacy I was incertain. This would signify distrustfulness of me on the part of those under my command,” he stated.
Özkök, who retired in 2006 and settled in the western province of İzmir to lead a life out of the public eye, oftentimes does national headlines in association with coup plans allegedly devised during his term as chief of General Staff.
There have been arrogates that a designed armed forces coup would have been arranged in 2003 if then-Chief of General Staff Gen. Özkök had affirmed it. Özkök was also allegedly the aim of a planned assassination due to his confrontation to a military coup.
The force commanders at the time were early Land Forces Commander Gen. Aytaç Yalman, early Air Forces Commander Gen. İbrahim Fırtına and early navy Commander Adm. Örnek, all of whom retired in 2004.
The 3 men presently charged of having formulated the coup plans Ayışığı, Sarıkız (Blonde Girl) and Yakamoz are altogether mentioned in Örnek’s journal.
Thursday’s hearing in Silivri was accompanied by forty-nine jailed suspects, including former chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ, retired Gen. Hurşit Tolon, retired Gen. Hasan Iğsız and journalist Tuncay Özkan.
It was the first time Başbuğ had attended to a hearing of the Ergenekon trial since all indictments related to Ergenekon were brought together in May, on the base of the numerous associates and parallels between the separate trials and suspects.
Başbuğ was imprisoned in January over coup accusations. Özkök also affirmed that former force commanders had aroused the thought of issuing a memorandum against the government on a military assembling in 2003, but added up that it wasn’t an “official” suggestion.
In his testimonial, Özkök told that force commanders at the time had mentioned issuing a memorandum against the government on a brainstorming session in a military assembling, but added up that this wasn’t an official proposition.”
