Prosecutor’s office launches probe into ‘post-modern’ coup
23.11.2011, Today’s Zaman
The Ankara Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into the Feb. 28, 1997, process, an unarmed military intervention in Turkey’s recent past, which was called the country’s first “post-modern” coup d’état, for as bloodless as it was, it was able to bring down a coalition government led by an Islamist-leaning party at the time.
Specially Authorized Prosecutor Mustafa Bilgili is conducting the investigation into the actions of the generals of the time, including then-Chief of General Staff İsmail Hakkı Karadayı, Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen Çevik Bir, National Security Council (MGK) Secretary-General Tuncer Kılınç and Land Forces Commander Gen. Erdal Ceylanoğlu. These generals, who have all since retired, are suspects in the investigation.
The probe was launched after hundreds of complaints filed by plaintiffs from across different provinces across Turkey. The plaintiffs are usually individuals who say they were victimized by the Feb. 28 process.
Yunus Akyol, head of the Association of World Victims, in his petition to the prosecutor’s office noted that the Welfare Party (RP) and True Path Party (DYP) coalition government, which was formed after the general elections of 1995, started executive work on July 8, 1995, following a vote of confidence in Parliament. He wrote that the 54th government was forced to step down in a coup on Feb. 28, 1997, at a time when all pious individuals were treated as a threat against the country’s regime by the military, which claimed to “protect the regime.”
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