Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim is set to chair a top-level military meeting that is likely to lead to a major shake-up within the country’s armed forces following a failed coup by renegade military officers. Only minor changes to the top military ranks were made. The dishonourable discharges included around 40 percent of Turkey’s admirals and generals.
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The indictment, prepared by the Edirne Public Prosecutor’s office and accepted by the local Second Heavy Penal Court, seeks the harshest possible punishment for 43 suspects that have allegedly been linked to the failed coup attempt on July 15, including the coup’s supposed mastermind, Fethullah Gulen, the arch-nemesis of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“And then they say that “Erdogan has got so angry”!” he fumed.
“He argued that officials are getting thousands of tweets and texts saying “‘if you don’t reintroduce the death penalty, we won’t vote for your party anymore'”.
According to Jason Ditz of AntiWar.com, the Turkish military has historically enjoyed a great degree of autonomy, perceiving itself as a “protector” of democracy in Turkey.
He said 237 people – not including the coup plotters themselves – had been killed in the coup attempt, a rise of one from the previous toll. “We are forced to take these measures”, he said.
Chairman Mustafa Boydak and two group executives, Sukru and Halit Boydak, were held in raids on their homes, it said.
Immediately after the failed coup attempt, the Turkish government criticized the United States for providing safe haven for Gulen, saying that a country that harbors “the coup planner” is “no friend” to Turkey.
Late Wednesday, the government issued a decree that transferred control of the paramilitary police force and the coast guard from the military to the government’s Interior Ministry.
“When we weed them (pro-Gulenist elements) out, our army will first of all be more dynamic, cleaner and more effective”, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, dismissing concerns that the forces would be weakened. Turkey considers Gulen’s organisation to be a terror goup that was behind the July 15 coup, charges he fiercely denies.
Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey on July 20. Washington has said it is considering Ankara’s request. His movement, known as Hizmet, or “Service” in Turkish, set up hundreds of schools and businesses in Turkey and later overseas.
Amnesty International has said detainees may have suffered human rights violations, including beatings and rape – an accusation roundly rejected by Ankara.
The EU has also bridled at talk in Turkey – from Erdogan down – of restoring the death penalty, a move Brussels said would scupper Ankara’s decades-old bid to join the bloc.
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Tourism, a pillar of the economy, has been badly hit by a series of deadly bombings in Turkey, including one at Istanbul’s airport in June that killed 45 people, and by tensions with Russian Federation. As home to millions of Syrian refugees, it is also the European Union’s partner in a deal reached previous year to halt the biggest flow of migrants into Europe since World War Two.
