Ex-Turkey air chief faces coup charges

General Akin Ozturk denies involvement in plot as Ankara continues purge

ANKARA/ ISTANBUL: Turkey on Monday produced a former air force chief in court on charges of being involved in Friday’s failed coup attempt as Ankara continued a massive nation-wide purge.

Looking haggard with his ear bandaged in images published by state media, General Akin Ozturk appeared before the criminal court in Ankara. The court was to decide if he and 26 other generals and admirals should be remanded in custody ahead of trial, Anadolu news agency reported.

They are accused of trying to overthrow the existing order and also of plotting to assassinate President Erdogan.

Anadolu agency said that Ozturk had confessed, but private broadcaster Haberturk contradicted this, saying he had told prosecutors he tried to prevent the attempted putsch.  “I am not the person who planned or led the coup. Who planned it and directed it I do not know,” Anadolu quoted him as saying.

The Turkish government says the coup was masterminded by Fethullah Gulen, a cleric based in the United States while Ozturk was a co-leader of the plot. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said there had been periodic intelligence about a grouping within the military that could attempt ‘some sort of an uprising’ and that the plan had been to remove them at an August meeting of the High Military Council (YAS), the top body overseeing the armed forces.

Purging the system

Ankara proceeded with a massive purge through its ranks Monday with nearly 20,000 members of the police, civil service, judiciary and army detained or suspended since Friday night’s coup attempt, in which more than 200 people were killed when a faction of the armed forces tried to seize power.

A senior security official told Reuters that 8,000 police officers, including in the capital Ankara and the biggest city Istanbul, had been removed from their posts on suspicion of links to Friday’s abortive coup.

About 1,500 finance ministry officials had been suspended, a ministry official said, and CNN Turk said 30 governors and more than 50 high-ranking civil servants had been dismissed.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said 7,543 people had so far been detained, including 6,038 soldiers. Some were shown in photographs stripped to their underpants and handcuffed on the floors of police buses and a sports hall.

A court remanded 26 generals, including Ozturk and admirals in custody on Monday, Turkish media said.

Ankara has demanded Washington hand Gulen over. Washington says that while it is prepared to extradite him, Turkey will have to provide evidence linking him to crime.  The Turkish premier, however, rejected that demand.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2016.