It will be assumed that the document "is not genuine"!

The decision given by the military prosecutor's office on the authenticity of the "document" published in the Taraf newspaper is in fact a simple decision of "non-prosecution."

A decision stating that, based on the evidence at hand, no further progress can be made legally is, at first glance, a decision that cannot be objected to. The evidence at hand indeed does not allow more than this for use as a basis for judgment in trying a person or an institution.

In fact, from the moment the document emerged, considering the political, legal and moral complications it could cause "if it proved true," it was also clear that the least wounding way out of this affair was for the document to turn out to be forged. For this reason one could even hope the document was forged, because the mere thought that an organized crime of these dimensions had occurred to someone tragically made one feel how insecure, uncanny and false the world we live in is.

Yet at the point reached, we see that the possibility of the document turning out forged, far from repairing the trust and respect that have been shattered, even gives rise to the possibility of extra crimes being committed by some. CHP leader Deniz Baykal not only treats the non-prosecution decision that the military prosecutor's office had to give "due to insufficient evidence" as evidence that the document is "forged," but acts as though he has definitively found the perpetrator of this forgery, and even demands accountability.

Yet if it has merely not been proven that the document belongs to Colonel Dursun Çiçek because the original of the document could not be found, then the opposite claim, that is, the claim that the document is fabricated, can never be proven either. In the end, what remains of such an incident is an "immoral thought," aggressive, with an unknown perpetrator.

Likewise, the similar statements made yesterday by Chief of the General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ about the famous document have rushed to "the point that the document is not genuine," and with all his authority he commands this point as a "definitive datum," as a point of departure for all discussions from now on.

Yet the military judiciary's decision contains a whole series of problems whichever way you look at it, and because of these problems there is no possibility that it has put the final full stop. In that case the institution of appeal will inevitably operate. Moreover, if new evidence regarding the document is to emerge, or it is to be recalled that other existing evidence has not been adequately assessed, then the "order of a point of departure" that Başbuğ derived from a non-prosecution decision means, at the very least, a serious interference in a judicial process that has not yet concluded.

Indeed, however much we wish for this document to be forged in all its content, the conduct displayed so far by military circles is enough to leave this wish only a naive wish. No one has the right to find this much vigilance excessive toward circles that have turned the habits of addenda, memoranda, e-memoranda, coups and coup diaries into a guarantee that they will do what they have done.

That the legal validity of this document could not be proven shows not that the document is forged, but only that no legal action can be taken on the basis of this particular document.

Yet the intentions this document contains have continued to be put into practice in this country for years, and no "image" has been conveyed to the public that the TSK is fighting this mentality, which is reflected outward so plainly.

Instead, the only thing reflected outward is venomous statements against "ill-intentioned circles" aimed at wearing down the TSK's image.

At the point reached today, there is one fact that has become thoroughly clear: the only thing that can repair the TSK's image is for the TSK to be rid of its concern for its image and to try to take its measures against such incidents that in fact wear it down.

At the point reached, image is no longer everything.

Even if the TSK's image is repaired one way or another, it must look for ways to get rid of the junta-ist wolves that are rapidly devouring the institution.