Erdogan supports retrial of the officers convicted of attempted military coup

Baku/06.01.14/Turan : Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he supports the retrial of the several hundred officers , convicted on charges of conspiracy to overthrow the government in 2003, according to RBC reports citing BBC. The sentences  were passed in autumn 2012. During the trial defendants denied the allegations, saying that there was no conspiracy , and there were regular military exercises.

According to Turan agency, the Chief  of the  Staff  of the Turkish Armed Forces in  2008-2010, Ilker Bashbug, who is serving a life sentence in the case of a coup, noted in his forthcoming book that the alleged attempts  on creation illegal armed groups are  insult to the Turkish army and the Turkish officers. Several officers,  regarding such accusations as a shame, shot  themselves  from  their standard weapons. It was a form of protest against the actions of the political leadership, said Bashbug.

Earlier, the Turkish military appealed on several  lawsuits, where the defendants were officers. 

"If the  courts accept the  claim, the retrial of the case would be virtually guaranteed," said Haluk Pecsen, one of the lawyers in the  case of "Ergenekon"  when about 300 officers were convicted to long prison terms for allegedly plotting.

The appeal was filed at a time when the authority of the government headed by Tayyip Erdogan  was strongly undermined by the widespread corruption scandal that caused the resignation of three cabinet ministers, whose sons were among those arrested, and caused great concern in the community about the independence of the judiciary system. Erdogan himself argues that the scandal was the result of collusion, managed by  anti-Turkish forces abroad, in order to weaken his authority. Earlier, the adviser of  Erdogan suggested that officers convicted on false charges, instigated by police and judicial authorities.

According to experts, the case on military conspiracy  became an attempt to weaken the influence of the Turkish armed forces in the political process in the country. In the postwar history the Turkish armed forces, which are traditionally  were considered  the support of secular part  of society, three times staged coups: in 1960,  in 1971,  and  in 1980.—0--