The present government of Turkey has embarked upon a dangerous journey of revenge in the pursuit of justice and stability. While one might understand the desire to even scores in many venues of public and private life, the current situation where 250 officers including 55 serving admirals and generals have been arrested is more than worrying. In a letter to the editor of the Financial Times, printed on April 30, 2012, Captain A. Yasin Turker writes from the Maltepe Military Prison concerning this issue. This comes on top of the arrest and imprisonment of journalists. An NPR story can be accessed concerning the journalists at: http://www.npr.org/.... The European Union parliament committee on foreign affairs in its 2011 report concerning Turkey addresses the arbitrary nature of the arrests and evidence.
It seems as if the current government is attempting to not only reverse the situation of power in Turkey where elected governments have been removed by the military in extra legal actions, but desire to punish any and all members of the military who might have achieved their status by association with former military leaders who took these actions. This is guilt by association. The same applies to the arrests of journalists. The current governing Justice and Development Party seems bent on dismantling the institutions that have made Turkey a secular and prosperous world leader. Many of the elements of Mustafa Ataturk's program that created modern Turkey are under fire including giving radical religious movements control of education and legalizing control of women in pubic. One would hope that the economic and political gains that have given Turkey considerable stature in recent years will move the government to assert itself and rescind these undemocratic and chilling arrests.