The confession of Colonel Zeki Üçok, the retired military prosecutor, was published in the Star news. The fact, that Üçok was detained by the police and spent four years in prison on charges of the sledgehammer case and the fake certificate of disability for discharge, proves how even one sentence of the confession is enough to explain the most complicated stories.

Üçok is narrating a conversation that took place in Zekeriya Öz"s room. Öz was conducting the operation and states that Öz was showing him the report that "the journalist IK (Ismail Küçükkaya) was being tapped" however he did not give himself the report because "it was not a legal tapping". The incident took place in 2009.

At that time Zeki Üçok, who was the Air Forces Judicial Undersecretary, was conducting the "Karargah Evleri" investigation (the Command Center Houses) together with Captain Mehmet Çelik which began in the frame of the Ergenekon Investigation. The investigation was going fine at its initial stages; however, "the real owner of the operations" disliked its route and targeted both names.

The news involving the most serious charges against Zeki Üçok and Mehmet Çelik is serviced on media outlets and the issue suddenly becomes the most controversial one along with the two names. The news, with headlines reading "the richest prosecutor of the world", is delivered and these media outlets occupy a widespread place on the internet and news websites as much as they get.

At that time, I was rather quite interested in the foreign policy and writing articles in that field. Therefore, I was not aware of the investigations, which were deeply shaking Turkey. I was only watching the news with a journalist instinct and keeping up with the news from the specialists and building my own convictions.

"The Command Center House Prosecutor spoke"

I got a phone call this morning. It was Captain Mehmet Çelik. It was clear that he was under great pressure and felt the need to call me because of that. We were classmates doing our major at the faculty of Law in Dokuz Eylül University. We had never had the opportunity to contact with each other for many years until this phone call. However, I knew him quite well from his school life. We had common friends from the faculty. So, we were greeting each other through them. I only got to know that he was a captain in the air forces and to what extent he took place in the investigation from the news appeared in those days.

He told me so many unbelievable things. He gave me many striking details concerning with tapping we all know more or less in Turkey, including the intrigues, dimension of the operations. These were such things that would excite any journalist. He told me all these like he was speaking to an old friend but I told him that his statements were so important and I wanted to write them. First, he objected and then said, "Well okay, if you want you can".

In March 13, 2009, I wrote some of those under the title "Karargah Evleri (The Command Center House) Prosecutor spoke"

"We may confront new attacks in the upcoming days. They are trying to stop us with similar news. I was trying to be fair and just while conducting this investigation. We are not classifying people based on their ideological profile. We are just trying to find the truth". He was saying that the Karargah Evleri investigation was quite significant and they were conducting a highly intensive and meticulous one. He said that they were trying to be just and self-confident on this.

However, what about the possibility of any attempt to obscure the investigation or its nullification? He said, "I am conducting the investigation. Everything under the carpet will come out. There cannot be any obscuring. No one will be persecuted because their thoughts are incompatible. They are blackmailing us with montaged pictures. New things may come up in the upcoming days. Critical incidents may take place. These news are being prepared in order to avoid the results and manipulate the investigation.

He added, "If I want now, I can make Ibrahim Karagül seem to have talked with Abdullah Öcalan from his own telephone". These conversations are recorded on Turkcell such as "Ibrahim Karagül has talked with this and that". We brought this up. "

I asked him directly about the allegations of some groups that the Karargah Evleri investigation went off the track and evidences were obscured or manipulated because this was the most controversial aspect of the topic. He rejected it with a certain language. I got the impression from his talk that the reason why these attacks were being made was because there are some groups which demanded a one-sided investigation.

To get stuck in between journalism and conscience

I summarized the above-mentioned in my article on March 13, 2009 and then all broke loose on March 14. Çelik was called to the General Staff. They told him this "we decided not to talk about this investigation and make any statement that could affect the investigation. You"ve violated it." He called me and said, "I guess my military life is over".

Çelik, the General Stuff and I were all in great difficult. Without making calculations much, following my journalism spirit of narrating the truth or with my journalism instinct, I found myself at the heart of a fight.

For the first time in my life, I became stuck in between journalism and my conscience. I put the explanation into my column, which was prepared in a quite balanced and delicate language. I published it without making any comment, addition or subtraction from it.

The same day that the explanation was published, my conversation record with Mehmet Çelik was delivered to General Staff. They listened to the record, prepared it and sent them to the address. In those days, the connection of these websites to the Gülen community was being rejected with a certain language. Now everything is clear. They made an obnoxious broadcasting and serviced very ugly news. Supposedly, I set a plot with those in the General Staff whereas I knew no one else other than Mehmet Çelik, be it in that specific investigation or in general sense.

The conversation lay on the table of the commander of the Turkish air forces.

Even so, I recall how Zaman"s author, Abdülhamit Bilici, furiously reacted to the topic during our visit abroad with the Prime Minister. However, I know… after this article, it"s likely that the same figures will use the same attack language.

Let"s get to the essential question.

That conversation record was given to the then Commander of the Air Forces, Aydogan Babaoglu, and he got Col. Zeki Üçok to listen to it. The respected commander is obliged to clarify those who gave him his illegal tapping. Everyone in the chain of this network from the lowest up to the highest rank is guilty and I will pursue the legal proceedings on this issue within the capacity of my personal rights.

Turkey is discussing how today people are being wiretapped and tracked and threatened. All the dirty agendas come out one by one. We also saw the agents of these wiretapping at that time were planning to overthrow the government and take the state under their control. The same hands were able to put the tapping records onto the table of the Commander of the Air Forces, and in case, they could have even threatened them.

The prosecutor said that Zekeriya Öz showed him the certificate of Öz"s getting I.K. illegally tapped and added that Öz told him "I cannot give you this because it"s an illegal tapping".