BY ISMAIL KUCUKKAYA
AKSAM- When I entered the Orbay Hall yesterday to listen to Gen. Buyukanit, I noticed something different on the wall. There was a sentence on the wall different from the usual. It said: `Doing something timelessly means failure. Everything should be done on time.' I evaluate Gen. Buyukanit's speech in two different perspectives in terms of its timing and content. Gen. Buyukanit felt the need to say that 12 April does not bear a special meaning. `My term started 8 months ago. Within this period, I encountered undesired things but preferred to be calm. And this is my first press briefing,' he said and added that although he arranged the schedule before, the exact date was determined to be 12 April as he is going to Thessalonica next month.
First of all ten Turkish soldiers were martyred in the first week of this month. And Kurdish leader Barzani's arrogant remarks coincided almost the same days. The second lieutenant who was accused of leaking the diary was brought to court. Also, former Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Ozkok made some comments about the claims of coup d'état on April 11. Although it is said that there is no direct connection between these, it is at least an interesting coincidence. The fact that we are at a crucial period before next month's presidential elections should be surely added to this. All of these factors made Gen. Buyukanit's speech vital.
As for the content of the speech, he delivered his speech in five main parts. The first 32 minutes were about terrorism. Other topics were about the efforts to deteriorate the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), efforts to create minorities in Turkey, and on daily discussions and TSK's accreditation. An additional topic he talked about was next month's presidential election. He said that the president was the commander-in-chief of the armed forces so the upcoming election interested them closely. He told what kind of a president TSK wants. I asked these remarks to some sources of the government. Most of them said that they didn't view these remarks as strange and that they didn't think Gen. Buyukanit referred to someone.
In general, he was stick to the constitutional framework and gave clear messages to the public in his speech lasting nearly one and a half hour. I think his speech consisted of balanced, appropriate and clear messages. In my opinion, the Chief of General Staff of a democratic country should talk like this.
In sum, I think one of the most important presidential elections in Turkey's history is being held in a highly interesting and democratic platform of deliberation. Everything is happening before everyone in accordance with the rules and principles.