ISTANBUL: Sixty people including a former military chief faced demands for life jail terms over a 1997 campaign of army pressure, known in Turkey as the ?post-modern? coup, that toppled the country´s first Islamist-led government, state media said on Thursday.
Coups in 1960 and 1980 and a failed 2016 putsch involved overt army use of force, but the resignation of prime minister Necmettin Erbakan followed warnings and only a brief appearance of tanks in a provincial town.
It is an action that has long rankled with current Islamist-rooted President Tayyip Erdogan.In his final opinion on the case, the prosecutor said the army action, which did not result in any direct military rule, constituted a real coup attempt and could not be defined as ?post-modern?, broadcaster NTV reported.
Among those facing life sentences are General Ismail Hakki Karadayi, 85, who was chief of general staff between 1994 and 1998, and his deputy at the time General Cevik Bir, state-run Anadolu news agency said.The investigation into the unseating of Erbakan, who led a coalition government, is one of a series of court cases that have targeted the formerly all powerful secularist military in recent years.
12-22-2017, 11:50 AM
Turkey seeks life terms for 60 over 1997 coup
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