generalspeaking

Turkey trial: Three army generals jailed for 'coup plot'

BBC News online - 21 September 2012

The sentences came at a trial of hundreds of officers accused of plotting against the Islamist-rooted government. They denied the charges.

The officers were accused of plotting to bomb mosques and trying to trigger a conflict with neighbouring Greece in order to justify a military coup.

The court in Silivri, near Istanbul, acquitted 34 defendants.

Cetin Dogan, Ozden Ornek and Ibrahim Firtina were initially given life sentences on Friday, but then their sentences were dropped to 20 years.

The defendants denounced the evidence as fabricated and accused the government of carrying out a witch-hunt against the armed forces.

Gen Dogan, former commander of Turkey's First Army, branded the two-year trial "unfair and unlawful".

He is accused of being the mastermind behind the 2003 alleged plot.

"Here we see a process unfolding to make the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey), who give their lives for their country, to pay the price of their commitment to the republic and its principles," he said, according to court documents.

Prosecutors say "Operation Sledgehammer" was a conspiracy to trigger a coup against the elected government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey's military has long seen itself as the guarantor of the country's secular constitution.
It staged three coups between 1960 and 1980 and has a history of tension with the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Prime Minister Erdogan.

Prosecutors called for the 365 military officers in the case to each be jailed for up to 20 years.