Tag: Kenan Evren

Two Leaders of Turkey’s 1980 Coup Indicted

Two Leaders of Turkey’s 1980 Coup Indicted

Dorian Jones | Istanbul

Photo: AP

Kenan Evren, the leader of Sept. 12, 1980 military coup, arrives to cast his vote in a referendum in Ankara, Turkey. (File Photo – September 12, 2010)

In Turkey, the two surviving leaders of a 1980 military coup have been charged with crimes against the state. The move is seen by many as an important step in the country facing up to its dark past of military rule.

The leader of the 1980 Turkish coup, retired general Kenan Evren, and a co-conspirator, former air force chief Tahsin Sahinkaya, have been indicted by an Ankara court on crimes against the state.

Reaction

In Taksim Square in the center of Istanbul, the scene of a massacre preceding the coup, there is mixed reaction from people to the indictments.

“He had made a coup, and lots of people had been tortured,” said a passerby. “He killed lots of people. That is why have to prosecute him.”

“No, no, I do not agree,” he added. “I believe in him because I lived those times, and I know what happened. Government should send him to court because he destroyed democracy. Still people hate him. For example, my father was tortured by the soldiers.”

The generals seized power in 1980 after years of political unrest, which claimed hundreds of lives. Prosecutors claim much of that unrest was incited by the army.

Aftermath of coup

The years of military rule that followed saw 50 people executed and hundreds of thousands more detained, many of whom were tortured. One of them was Defne Sandalye.

“I was arrested twice after the coup d’etat,” said Sandalye. “I spent most of my time at the interrogation center, which was the torture center. First time, I was there for a month, and then I was released, and then five months later, I was arrested again. Then I spent three-and-half months in the torture center.”

The indictment of the two surviving coup leaders comes as Turkey is finally facing up to its dark years of military rule.

“It is important to do this because Turkish people are suffering from an historical amnesia, and they not very apt to facing their past,” added Sandalye. “Also people easily surrender to authority here. For long years, no one questioned, nobody questioned what the army is capable of and what it has been doing.”

AK Party and army

Throughout its decade rule, the Islamic-based AK Party has sought to bring the secularist army to heel. In 2010, constitutional reforms were passed in a referendum that lifted the immunity of the coup leaders.

But the timing of the indictments against the coup leaders has raised some questions.

“They should be prosecuted because they committed a crime, which cannot be legitimized nor justified,” said political columnist Kadri Gurcel of the Turkish newspaper Milliyet. “But I see this one as a purely tactical step to divert the discussion, which will also change the agenda.”

The government is facing growing domestic and international criticism for its human-rights record. The European Union has been highly critical of Turkey’s human rights and its judiciary. Ending the army’s role in politics is one of the government’s main human-rights goals as Turkey tries to gain EU membership.

A significant step

Political scientist Cengiz Aktar of Bahcesehir University says whatever the motivations behind the prosecution of the coup leaders, it remains a significant step for Turkish democracy.

“It is symbolic,” said Aktar. “It is very important. That man [Evren] organized and chaired the junta. And he was having a beautiful life in the Turkish Riviera until now. I think it is high time for him to pay for his crimes. Because the 1980 coup did a great deal of damage to democratic life in this country, and we are still living with the consequences of this 1980 coup.”

The prosecutors have sought life imprisonment for the coup leaders – Kenan Evren, who is 94 years old, and Tahsin Sahinkaya, who is 86. For the victims of military rule, there is hope that those responsible will be held to account in court, something observers say was unthinkable only a few years ago.

via Two Leaders of Turkey’s 1980 Coup Indicted | Europe | English.

January 11, 2012
Death takes one Turkish coup leader as court calls two others

One of the leaders of the 1980 military coup d’etat died in an Istanbul hospital Monday, hours before a prosecutor called the last two coup leaders still living to testify in court.

Nejat Tümer was one of the most important generals in the military coup staged on Sept. 12, 1980. AA photo

A prosecutor in Ankara sent invitations to Kenan Evren, the chief of General Staff at the time of the coup, and Tahsin Şahinkaya, then the Air Force commander, to testify in an investigation into the military coup and crimes of the post-coup era.

The two men are the last living members of the National Security Council, or MGK, formed after the army brass took over the control of the country.

Retired Gen. Nejat Tümer, who died Monday at the age of 87, was the Navy commander at the time of the Sept. 12, 1980, coup. He had been undergoing treatment for cancer at the Gülhane Military Academy Hospital, or GATA.

A ceremony will be held for Tümer at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Navy War Academy and he will be buried at the Zincirlikuyu Cemetery following the noon prayer.

Evren and Şahinkaya were invited to testify by Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Murat Demir, who was assigned in early April to launch an investigation into the 1980 coup. Such a probe became possible after a Sept. 12, 2010, referendum annulled the constitutional article that banned judicial action against the coup’s leaders. Hundreds of criminal complaints filed in prosecutors’ offices all over the country have been sent to Ankara, the site of the coup.

Evren’s lawyer came to the Ankara courthouse Monday, met the prosecutor and requested that his client be allowed to testify at his house in Ankara due to his age and health problems. The prosecutor’s office said it would assess the request and then make a decision. It will also decide where and how Şahinkaya, who lives in Istanbul, will give his testimony.

Evren, the country’s seventh president, had previously said he would never testify and claimed he would commit suicide before that would happen. “I promise in front of my nation that I will not let this matter be dealt with in the courts. I will commit suicide,” he said when the idea of a coup trial was discussed in 2009.

The investigation could result in a case being opened against Evren and Şahinkaya; alternatively, the prosecutors could decide not to pursue the case.

‘A very important development’

Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Şahin called the invitation to testify a “very important development.”

“Just three days ago, on the anniversary of the May 27, 1960, coup, we talked about how useless military interventions are and what such interventions made this country lose,” Şahin told reporters in Parliament.

He noted that debate was still continuing on whether the coup leaders could be put on trial, as some experts argue that the statue of limitations should apply to the crimes, which would make it too late to charge the generals.

“We will wait and see what the prosecutors and the court decide to do,” Şahin said.

Many experts argue that even a very liberal interpretation of the statute of limitations would not allow crimes – except for crimes against humanity – to be prosecuted more than 30 years after the fact. Others say the statute of limitations did not actually start until the law banning prosecution of the coup leaders was canceled.

Evren and Şahinkaya are the only top generals from the 1980 coup who are still alive. Then-Land Forces Commander Nurettin Ersin died Nov. 3, 2005, and Gendarmerie Commander Sedat Celasun died July 16, 1998.

The 1980 military coup was launched “to bring peace to a polarized society where thousands of people were being killed on the streets,” according to the coup generals and their supporters. The results, however, were devastating: 650,000 people were taken into custody and 230,000 were put on trial. Military prosecutors demanded the death penalty for 7,000 people; 517 of them received the death penalty and 50 were hanged.

The military rule revoked the citizenships of more than 14,000 Turks and another 30,000 left the country to seek refugee abroad.

In prisons, 299 inmates died of “indeterminate” reasons and 14 died while on hunger strikes. Torture by security forces reportedly claimed 171 lives.

Corruption charges for Şahinkaya

In addition to the coup-era killings, torture and mistrials, Şahinkaya has also been accused of corruption. Turkey selected the F-16 as its Air Force’s main fighter jet and more than 230 F-16s were jointly produced with the United States at a plant near Ankara between the late 1980s and 1999. Şahinkaya is accused of accepting bribes to promote F-16 over F-18 jets.

In a televised interview last September, the retired general flatly denied the allegations against him and said he had made a major contribution to the establishment of the aircraft industry in Turkey.

“In fact, I thought that Turkey should buy the two-engine F-18s, but other generals decided to go with the F-16s,” he said in the interview.

via Death takes one Turkish coup leader as court calls two others – Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review.

May 31, 2011
Turkey’s coup leaders to go on trial?

A legal debate has begun in Turkey over the trial of generals behind the 1980 military coup who were counting on legal loopholes and the statue of limitations.

Turkey’s former Chief of Staff General Kenan Evren led a right-wing military coup against the government in 1980, staying in power for four years, during which hundreds of lives were lost and the constitution was rewritten.

On September 12 of this year, a public referendum was held, marking the 30th anniversary of the coup. The referendum, which passed by a majority, removed Article 15 from the Constitution which had previously provided Evren and other generals protection from standing trial.

Legal experts say, however, that Article 15 was in effect an amnesty, rather than immunity, and therefore cannot be revoked.

Behir Sinan Akboga, a lawyer with the Istanbul Bar Association, told Press TV, “The question is, can we try Evren and coup members if we remove Article 15 of the Constitution? No, we can’t; because Article 15 provided a cloaked amnesty and was accepted with a 92 percent public vote.”

“The date of the crime is important because we can talk about time limits here. According to Turkish penal code, a crime must be judged within 30 years of its occurrence,” Akboga added.

Ertugrul Kurkcu of the Bianet News Portal said, “It’s really important for Turkey. It’s as important as the Pinochet trial in Chile which, incidentally, couldn’t commence for a long time. Unfortunately, I think it will be the same here as the government doesn’t have a real strategy in this case.”

(Source: Press TV)

via tehran times : Turkey’s coup leaders to go on trial?.

November 21, 2010
United States laid ground for Ergenekon “Deep State” in Turkey

WMR has discovered a formerly Secret document from the U.S. Department of State that confirms the United States not only supported the Turkish military coup that ousted the nation’s democratically-elected government in 1980 but actively supported the military-imposed Turkish Constitution as “reformist.”

The citizens of Turkey recently voted in a referendum and approved 26 constitutional amendments that will transform Turkey into a democratic state without the threat of the military and national security state-affiliated judiciary trumping the power of the Parliament and the people. Neocons have condemned the referendum as a threat to secularism in Turkey and a move to an Islamic state. However, the neocons and their allies in Israel are concerned that a Mossad -and CIA-imposed Turkish “Deep State” has finally seen its power largely destroyed with the impending adoption of a new Turkish Constitution. The referendum, which passed with 58 percent of the vote, is a victory for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Many of the roots of the creation of the most recent variant of the Turkish Deep State, known as Ergenekon, can be seen in the State Department policy paper dated September 5, 1981, and titled “USG Policy toward Turkey.” When the State Department document was drafted, Turkey’s military junta leader, General Kenan Evren, was drafting the present Turkish Constitution. The 1981 Turkish military draft Constitution’s “reforms” were referred to in the State Department policy document’s author Lawrence Eagleburger, the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs: “It is too early to judge whether the fundamental GOT reforms, now in place or in prospect, will succeed.” The document also talks about the “relief” provided to the United States by the 1980 military coup: “The military takeover of September 1980 brought temporary relief and for the moment broke the back of radical movements — including pro-Islamic ones — which had come to the fore in the 1970s.”

Eagleburger signaled his and the Reagan administration’s support for the Turkish junta because of the same bogus reasons that neocons today criticize the Erdogan government: the bogeyman of Turkish Islamic political power. Eagleburger warned that Turkey could “drift away from NATO and Western-style government; alignment with Middle East states which supply oil and markets; possibly even neutralism growing out of accommodations with the USSR.” Today, the neocons, Israelis, and their Ergenekon allies in Turkey argue the same points in demonizing the Turkish government: that Turkey is drifting from NATO, that it is turning to oil suppliers and markets like Iran, and has a growing relationship with Russia.

Eagleburger then outlines how the Reagan administration would cement U.S. ties with Turkey to prevent the above scenarios from being realized. He writes: “ . . . the Turkish-American relationship has no natural constituency in terms of shared history, economic interdependence, ethic or family ties. The absence of a ‘Turkish lobby’ in the United States is indicative.” Two of the recipients of the Eagleburger document would later help fill the void and help create the American Turkish Council (ATC), a lobby group patterned after their friends at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Those two recipients of the Eagleburger document were Richard Perle, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, and Paul Wolfowitz, Director of Policy Planning at the State Department. Other recipients of the Eagleburger policy document on Turkey included Robert Hormats, the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs [and who is now the Undersecretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs under Hillary Clinton]; Ronald Spiers, the director of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey from 1977 to 1980; and the prospective U.S. ambassador to Pakistan; Richard Burt, the Director of Politico-Military Affairs for the State Department; and Nicholas Veliotes, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs.

The nature of the bilateral U.S.-Turkish relations were described as a “best effort” to help Turkey in all respects, including an “understanding” of Turkey’s position in Greek-Turkish issues and dealing with “Armenian terrorism.” In 1981, Armenia was a constituent republic of the USSR. Today, it is “Kurdish terrorism” that plagues Turkey since Armenia is now an independent state with a natural and politically-powerful constituency in the United States. The Eagleburger document describes the Evren junta as perceiving the Reagan administration as making a “best effort” in providing financial support to Turkey from Washington’s “weighing in” on the “International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Saudis, and other potential donors.”

Eagleburger also warns of “nettlesome” issues that could adversely affect U.S. relations with the Turkish junta, for example, “Congressional badgering on Cyprus, on relations with Greece, on the pace of return to democracy, and an Armenian niche in the proposed Holocaust Museum.”

The United States, through an alliance with Israel and its influence peddlers in Washington, would ensure that the Turkish pace of democracy would not return to normal until the recent approval by the Turkish people of a new constitution that will eradicate the Turkish junta’s military “reforms” championed by Eagleburger and his band of proto-neocons in the Reagan administration in 1981. Attempts over the past eight years by Ergenekon to overthrow the AKP government failed and with the new constitutional changes, Ergenekon’s and Israel’s ability to influence events in Turkish politics have been curtailed, save for the continuing threat of covert Israeli provocation of terrorism involving the Kurds.

Source: Wayne Madsen Report, Sept 18, 2010

September 20, 2010