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Turkish court releases former top military officers detained over coup plot

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] A Turkish court on Thursday released three high ranking military officials detained for questioning over an alleged coup plot, hours after top political and military officials met to discuss the escalating situation. The court released former chief of the Navy, Adm. Ozden Ornek, ex-chief of the Air Force Gen. Ibrahim Firtina, and Gen. Ergin Saygun, ex-deputy chief of the military, but all three remain under investigation. Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Chief of General Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug, met in Ankara, to discuss tensions over the coup plot and the ensuing prosecutions. Eight officers were charged early Thursday on top of the 12 charged on Wednesday. Had Ornek and Firtina also been charged, they would have been the most senior military officers charged thus far in connection with the 2003 Balyoz Security Operation Plan, or "Sledgehammer plot," revealed last month by the newspaper Taraf. Ornek and Firtina were apprehended on Monday by Turkish police in an operation that detained more than 40 people in connection to the coup. Turkey's secular nationalist establishment, including the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF), has long conflicted with the ruling Justice Development Party (AKP). In July 2009, Gul approved a law that would allow the prosecution of military personnel in civilian courts and would prevent military prosecution of civilians during peacetime. Gul said that the law was necessary for accession to the European Union (EU). The Sledgehammer plot is similar to the Ergenekon conspiracy, in which the secular group is suspected of planning to overthrow the AKP. The Ergenekon group is also alleged to be involved in bombings, political assassination plots, and the death of journalist Hrant Dink. The probe into the Ergenekon conspiracy has been criticized as an attempt by the AKP to silence opposition and further its imposition of Islamic principles in violation of Turkey's secular constitution.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on February 25, 2010 (boomark / email).