A Turkish court on September 21 convicted 326 military officers, including the former air force and navy chiefs, of plotting to overthrow the nation’s Islamic-based government in 2003, in a case that has helped curtail the military’s hold on politics. A panel of three judges at the court on Istanbul’s outskirts initially sentenced former air force chief Ibrahim Firtina, former navy chief Ozden Ornek and former army commander Cetin Dogan to life imprisonment but later reduced the sentence to a 20-year jail term because the plot had been unsuccessful. The three were accused of masterminding the plot.
The court also convicted 323 other active or retired officers, including a former general elected to Parliament a year ago – of involvement in the conspiracy, sentencing some to as many as 18 years in prison. Thirty-six were acquitted, while the case against three other defendants was postponed. Turkey’s generals have staged three coups since the 1960s and forced an Islamist government to quit in 1997.
Erdogan’s government has hailed the trial, which began in December 2010, and other similar ones as a break with a tradition of impunity and a move toward greater democracy.
326 Convicted In Turkey Military Coup Plot
A Turkish court on September 21 convicted 326 military officers, including the former air force and navy chiefs, of plotting to overthrow the nation’s Islamic-based government in 2003, in a case that has helped curtail the military’s hold on politics.
