The Akıncı Air Base coup attempt indictment
The indictment on events at the Akıncı Air Base, which was used by coup-attempting soldiers as a headquarters on the night of last year’s failed putsch, was recently released. From examining the indictment, we see repeated references of the term “superior mind,” which is used by politicians to refer to “dark outside powers” aiming to target Turkey’s government.
If, as daily Cumhuriyet reported on April 1, the indictment was first taken to the justice minister and the parts over the “political leg” of the coup has been retouched...
If everything that happened at the National Intelligence Agency (MİT) and the General Staff headquarters is not fully enlightened...
If the MİT chief really did ask the security chief of President Erdoğan whether he was “in a position that is able to protect there” and the security forces did not tell the president this...
If it is not convincingly revealed how Adil Öksüz, one of the suspected leaders of the plot, was set free...
Then history will not remember the coup attempt as the work of a “superior mind.”
What all is said and done, this was a serious coup attempt, which targeted the lives of our president and his family.
If you dilute the issue with rumors about the “superior mind,” or investigate the coup attempt with low-quality indictment writing techniques – resembling the Feb. 28 1997 “post-modern coup” cases or the Ergenekon case - you may be able to fool people today and secure tomorrow for yourself. But you will not be able to save the future.
I have some advice to younger readers: Save this indictment somewhere and compare it with this article in the future.
Abdullah Öcalan and the boss of Chobani
Both outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan and Chobani yogurt company founder Hamdi Ulukaya were born as Kurdish-origin citizens of the Turkish Republic.
One was born in Halfeti in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa on April 4, 1949. The other was born on Oct. 26, 1972 in the İlic district of the eastern province of Erzincan.
Both studied in the Faculty of Political Sciences of Ankara University.
Both were taken into police custody as students. Öcalan served in prison for seven months. Ulukaya was detained but then released after a warning.
Both of them had a sense of the struggle for Kurdish rights. Öcalan thought these rights could be achieved by organizing and using violence. Ulukaya was against using violence.
Öcalan went to Syria after serving in prison, heading to the mountain bases founded by the PKK. Ulukaya went to the United States, despite not speaking English at the time.
Öcalan led the PKK terrorist organization from 1984 to 1999, when he was brought back to Turkey after being arrested in Kenya. Ulukaya bought an abandoned yoghurt factory in the U.S. and entered the American yogurt market with the Chobani brand he created.
Öcalan has lived in İmralı Prison since 1999. Ulukaya featured this month on the cover of Fast Company, the most famous new economy magazine in the U.S.
For the last two years the magazine has been putting the owners and managers of the giant technology companies of Silicon Valley on its cover. But now for the first time a person from outside the digital technology world has made it onto the cover.
Öcalan is the founder of a terrorist organization. Ulukaya is the founder of a company with annual revenue of $1.5 billion, holding 36 percent of the U.S. yogurt market.
The vast majority of Turkish people hate Öcalan. Ulukaya spends 10 percent of his income each year on charity works and is rapidly moving toward becoming one of the most admired businesspeople in American society.
The contrasting stories of Öcalan and Ulukaya are the stories of two Turkish citizens with Kurdish roots.
Both were educated through the equal and free education system provided to all the citizens of the republic. But they went in different directions.
