Two Significant Signatures & the Path from the Mil. Espionage Cases to Mil. Espionage Plot Case

The information that emerged during the "Military Espionage" trial, which began on April 16, 2013, at the 12th Heavy Penal Court in İzmir, was shocking. As is known, a prostitution ring used a method called the "Honey Trap" targeting officers and non-commissioned officers serving in the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF). This prostitution ring obtained classified military information and documents from soldiers who fell into the trap. In order to assess the confidentiality level of the seized military documents and thus determine whether they constituted state secrets, a committee was formed within the Intelligence Department  at General Staff of TAF at that time.

This committee was under the leadership of the then-Chief Intelligence of General Staff for TAF, Yaşar Güler, and the Second Chief of General Staff for TAF, Hulusi Akar. The committee evaluated the documents and concluded that the military documents were classified documents and that sharing them would constitute a crime. This decision was sent to the court handling the Military Espionage case, signed by Yaşar Güler and Hulusi Akar.

Opinions of Hulusi Akar, Yaşar Güler, and the Investigating Military Committee Regarding the Military Espionage Case

"We barely endured it; we were nauseated," they said.

In the "reinstatement to the profession" cases filed at the Military Supreme Administrative Court, Hulusi Akar reportedly stated, "Am I supposed to take these perverts back? Dismiss them all." 

The presence of those dismissed by Supreme Military Council (YAŞ) decisions also proved how serious and dangerous the matters revealed were for the Republic of Turkey and the Turkish Armed Forces.

The Path from the Military Espionage Case to the Military Espionage (so-called) Plot Case and to the July 15 (the ultimate treacherous conspiracy against Turkish Armed Forces)

 Brigadier General Mehmet Partigöç, who is on trial at the 17th Heavy Penal Court in Ankara in connection with the events of July 15, provides details related to this issue in his defense.

(an excerpt  from Brigadier General Partigöç's defense )

The translation of the excerpt is: 

"...there are two secret witnesses there. Let me tell you. What is the truth behind this secret witness issue?? At that time, there was an attempt to start a case in İzmir. The prosecutor was Okan Bato. At that time, he was a prosecutor close to the ruling government. According to what I last read in a newspaper, they had also dismissed him and assigned him to a more passive duty because his job was done; that's what the newspaper said, I don’t know for sure. They sent him to the juvenile court, or something like that, to deal with child offenses; they dismissed him as well. What was the tone of those days? They were talking about taking revenge for the espionage plot around the Sledgehammer case. He had already arranged two secret witnesses. This was also done with the participation of an assistant undersecretary from the Ministry of Justice, who came and met with Yaşar Güler. The subject of negotiation was whether this would touch Yaşar Güler or not. Why wouldn't it? Because everyone knows that all the documents sent for the İzmir case were signed by Yaşar Güler as the Chief of Intelligence and went through Hulusi Akar as the second Chief (of TAF). 

Currently, these are being criticized in the public. There is also another case that may not have come to the forefront; earlier, in 2010, there was espionage in Istanbul, which never came into the spotlight. We had worked on the Istanbul espionage with intelligence officers. At that time, I was a branch manager, and it never came to the forefront. For some reason, the İzmir espionage came forward. As Yaşar Güler explained to everyone, there were cameras and everything in the Istanbul espionage too. In fact, some were dismissed by the decision of the Supreme Military Council (YAŞ). Hulusi Pasha knows this very well. At that time, he was a legal advisor. This is not about the İzmir espionage. We don’t call it espionage; we say it is about exposing confidential information or immorality. Regarding this, Okan Bato already had a counteraction. You judges know each other very well, Judge Bey. You know which community someone belongs to, what their ideology is, which political affiliation they have, and even how a lawyer has shifted from one community to another. You probably know Okan Bato too. So, it would be presumptuous of me to say anything more; I don’t know him personally. 

These two secret witnesses were already available. For what? They were secret witnesses for the investigation launched in İzmir; they were Okan Bato’s secret witnesses. But when they saw that the situation had changed—while we were trying to handle the İzmir case, a new event emerged, July 15. Then they said, 'We already have secret witnesses at hand; let’s use these secret witnesses immediately for this case.' They told both of them, 'Friends, the situation has changed, come on, now you are secret witnesses.' They had two secret witnesses: Hakan Bıyık and Halil İbrahim. Interestingly, one of them is an old classmate of mine. Even though he is a naval officer, he studied at the Military Academy with us."

CHAIRMAN OĞUZ DİK: Halil İbrahim.

DEFENDANT MEHMET PARTİGÖÇ IN HIS STATEMENT ON THE MERITS 

This is the SEGBIS (Audio-Visual Information System) transcript from the hearing at Ankara 17th Heavy Penal Court on 11/03/2019 and 12/03/2019, case number 2017/109.

As can be understood from Brigadier General Partigöç's defense, documents submitted to the Military Espionage case that began on April 16, 2013, at the 12th Heavy Penal Court in İzmir, bore the signatures of the then-Chief Intelligence of General Staff for TAF, Yaşar Güler, and the Second Chief of General Staff for TAF, Hulusi Akar

Why Are These Signatures Important?

During the 17–25 December Corruption and Bribery investigations, information and documents revealing the corruption of the political power of the time surfaced. To cover up these investigations, the political power made certain changes in the judiciary and law enforcement and formed a new political climate through secret agreements with certain circles. In this newly formed climate, despite the audio, video, and written evidence against them, the defendants of the "Military Espionage Case" were acquitted on February 26, 2016.

Around the same time, İzmir Deputy Chief Prosecutor Okan Bato began preparing an indictment named as  "Military Espionage Plot" (as if the former Military Espionage Case was a plot ) and the indictment was accepted on April 15, 2016. Within the TAF, rumors began to circulate that many soldiers (who took part in preparation of the indictment and the rest of the Military Espionage Case mentioned above at the beginning of this article) would be arrested.

While then-Chief of the General Staff Hulusi Akar and the Second Chief Yaşar Güler were assuring their subordinates that they would not allow any illegality and that they would resist, on the other hand, they were secretly engaging in a dirty negotiation with the political power.

There are strong allegations that a close negotiation started between Prosecutor Okan Bato and Hulusi Akar and Yaşar Güler before April 15, 2016. The reason why Hulusi Akar and Yaşar Güler's names should have been mentioned in the indictment for the Military Espionage Plot prepared by Prosecutor Okan Bato was because their signatures appeared on the documents submitted to the court in the Military Espionage case. However, their names were not included in this indictment.

When these facts and events are considered, a very serious allegation emerges:

"The signatures of Hulusi Akar and Yaşar Güler on the documents submitted to the court in the Military Espionage case became a tool of threat to persuade them to support the plot staged against the TAF and its members on July 15, 2016.

At this point, Hulusi Akar and Yaşar Güler made a strategic assessment and opted for a bloody plan that would trap their subordinates, thus becoming complicit in the July 15 plot."

The Second Significant Detail Revealed by Brigadier General Mehmet Partigöç

The second important piece of information that emerged from Brigadier General Mehmet Partigöç's court statement shows how well-planned and long-prepared the trap set on July 15 was. The media created a perception around the "key secret witnesses of July 15," known as "Şapka" (Hat) and "Kuzgun" (Raven), who were, in fact, prepared long before for the Military Espionage Plot case.

In his statement, Brigadier General Partigöç laid everything out clearly:

"...These two secret witnesses were already in their hands. For what? They were secret witnesses for the investigation initiated in İzmir, for Okan Bato's investigation. But when they saw that things had changed, while they were trying to handle the İzmir case, a new event emerged—July 15. They said, 'We already have secret witnesses at hand, let's use them immediately in this.' They told them, 'This case has changed, come on, you are secret witnesses now.' There were two secret witnesses at hand: Hakan Bıyık and Halil İbrahim.

As time goes on and as statements given in the July 15 trials emerge, it will become clearer how a trap was set for the Turkish Armed Forces and its members on July 15. It will be understood that those who are presented as heroes today are, in fact, traitors."

Fatih Ayhan Acar