Turkish security council calls for common sense, skips alleged plot

At a moment when the country has been shaken with an alleged assassination plot against Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, the National Security Council, or MGK, convened under the leadership of President Abdullah Gül and with the participation of top civilian and military officials.

The statement issued after the four-and-half-hour-long meeting skipped the ongoing discussion about the plot but instead indirectly referred the street clashes that occurred just after the closure of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP.

“The determination to eliminate the terror and its roots that target the integrity and the unity of our country has been emphasized. It has been reaffirmed that our citizens, under contemporary democracy and rule of law, will continue to behave with common sense and will avoid moves that could hurt the brotherhood,” it read.

According to the statement, the board also discussed the ongoing peace talks between Turkish and Greek Cypriots, Turkey’s accession negotiations with the European Union, and the trilateral mechanism between the United States, Turkey and Iraq to crack down on the members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.  

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan later held talks with the ministers who joined the MGK meeting to evaluate the outcome and to draw a road map.

Cabinet members and military commanders convened amid high tension under the leadership of President Abdullah Gül on Monday when the prosecutors investigating a plot against Arınç launched a third search at the headquarters of the Special Forces Command.

The last meeting of 2009 brought together Erdoğan; Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ; head of the National Intelligence Organization, or MİT, Emre Taner; Interior Minister Beşir Atalay; and other military and civilian officials.

/Huriyyet Daily News/