| Author (Corporate) | BBC |
|---|---|
| Series Title | BBC News |
| Series Details | 21.9.12 |
| Publication Date | 21/09/2012 |
| Content Type | News |
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Turkish coup plot military chiefs jailed Three former senior Turkish commanders were sentenced to 20 years in jail for coup plotting on Friday at the climax to a mass trial of officers that has divided the country and underlined the military’s loss of political power. Cetin Dogan, Ibrahim Firtina and Ozden Ornek – former commanders of the army, air force and navy respectively – were found guilty of a plot codenamed Sledgehammer. Another 327 defendants were sentenced to up to 18 years, while 34 were acquitted. Supporters of the trial hailed it as a triumph of the rule of law against a military that has carried out three bloody coups in the past half century and explicitly threatened the current government as recently as 2007. Opponents said the prosecution’s case was based on fabricated evidence intended to decapitate the top command of the military for political reasons. At one point, before a batch of forced retirements last month, defendants in the case accounted for almost 20 per cent of all serving generals and admirals. Although the guilty verdicts of the most prominent defendants, such as General Dogan, had been expected, some family members collapsed on hearing the news. “Together with Ergenekon [another trial still in progress], this is the first time Turkey has begun to hold all the coups and coup plots to account,” said Lale Kemal, a writer at Taraf, the newspaper that in 2010 ran the first news stories on the Sledgehammer case. “This is an important step towards democratisation and deterring juntas from staging military coups in this country.” Ms Kemal added that Turkey still needed to carry out reforms to a law giving the military an oversight role, which has been used to justify a coup, as well as establishing parliamentary and auditors’ scrutiny over the military’s accounts and activities The defendants’ lawyers have long argued that the case, which refers to a coup plot in 2002-3, rests on forged evidence, including obvious errors and anachronisms, such as the use of Microsoft Office 2007 computer software in incriminating documents, misspellings of the suspects’ own names and the use of company names that came into effect only at a later date. “This case hasn’t removed the political influence of the military,” observed Gareth Jenkins, an Istanbul-based analyst. “Instead, it has occurred because the political influence of the military was not there any more.” Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development party has Islamist roots, and its rise to power in 2002 distressed the country’s fiercely secularist military, which had effectively pushed an Islamist-led government out of office in 1997. Prosecutors said the defendants had sought to prepare the groundwork for a coup to oust the party from power through stoking political instability and tensions with Greece, including by shooting down a Turkish jet and bombing a mosque. One of the central items in dispute was a tape of a 2003 seminar, which defendants said was contingency planning but prosecutors argued was preparation to carry out such a plot. In 2007, the general staff issued a memo widely seen as warning the government not to proceed with the election of Abdullah Gul, a co-founder of the ruling party, as president. Mr Gul finally acceded to the post after the government resoundingly won re-election. After a third election victory last year, almost all the chiefs of the armed forces resigned. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, is understood to have a close relationship with the current chief of general staff, Gen Necdet Ozel. Mr Erdogan said he could not comment on the case as it could still be taken to the appeal court. “All we want is a fair verdict,” he said. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012. Three former senior Turkish commanders were sentenced to 20 years in jail for coup plotting on the 21 September 2012 at the climax to a mass trial of officers that had divided the country and underlined the military’s loss of political power. Cetin Dogan, Ibrahim Firtina and Ozden Ornek – former commanders of the army, air force and navy respectively – were found guilty of a plot codenamed Sledgehammer. Another 327 defendants were sentenced to up to 18 years, while 34 were acquitted. |
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| Source Link | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19670530 |
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| Countries / Regions | Turkey |
