Has General Servet Yörük Really Died?

The question in the title is in fact not meant to express a doubt, but to seek confirmation.

I certainly make no claim that Gen. Servet Yörük was killed.

He lived like every mortal and died when his hour came. His heart, worn out by the hard times he lived through and given no rest even after retirement, unfortunately could not hold out any longer.

My purpose in asking the question is a reproach both to the media and to the ranks of the state. It is very striking that the death and funeral of a general who gave 44 years to the service of the country, took on very serious and, for their time, very difficult duties, and retired with the highest rank of the military profession were so thoroughly ignored.

I first read the news of his death in a local newspaper. I checked the national news agencies to confirm it, but saw no report that day. Thinking it an ordinary, made-up story, I set the matter aside. Our press does love to excite people with such outlandish stories… I frankly did not think the national news agencies could have missed such a story. But I later realised it had been deliberately disregarded. What made me realise it was that almost no military or civilian officials attended his funeral.

So who was Gen. Servet Yörük? Why did those running the state want to forget a full general who died not even 7 years after his retirement? Whom had Gen. Servet Yörük, who could please no one, crossed?

The defendants in the Ergenekon case and their supporters… Let me begin by saying that he served 6 years as Special Forces Commander, as a major general and lieutenant general. Because no one else has held this post for so long. Because he commanded the most critical institution of the Turkish Armed Forces during the Ergenekon trials, he was always a target. Over the arrest of some soldiers after reports of an assassination plot against Bülent Arınç and the search of the Mobilisation Inspection Board known as the Cosmic Room, he was always blamed by one camp. He was presented as the chief culprit for the entry into ‘the State’s Most Private Room’.

The government camp… During his time as Gendarmerie General Commander, the stopping of the MİT trucks took place. He was caught between government officials and the gendarmerie personnel under his command. On the testimony of a secret witness, it was claimed that Gen. Yörük had given the order to stop the trucks at a meeting held at headquarters. Pro-government newspapers ran negative stories about Yörük for days. Although he did not say it openly, it was said that on retiring he told the generals beside him, referring to the soldiers who had stopped the MİT trucks, “These boys are not guilty, they did their duty.” After retiring, he was summoned to give a statement because of the secret witness’s testimony. Although the soldiers tried in the MİT trucks case were punished on charges of FETÖ membership, they never wanted their names to be mentioned alongside the Cemaat (the Gülen movement).

The defendants in the MİT trucks case… While the MİT trucks trials were continuing, he this time testified in court as a witness. Because of his testimony about the Adana Provincial Gendarmerie Commander, he also drew the reaction of the defendant soldiers. He was accused of not standing firm.

Because he had somehow crossed almost every group with a significant following in the country, he was left in the position of ‘persona non grata’. Treated as an ‘orphan’ by the state he served and by the press, he passed quietly into eternity. In a period when people stand up only for their own, he chose to be no one’s man.  Perhaps in such a period we should even be glad that he was not buried in the ‘Cemetery of the Forsaken’. May God rest his soul.