Complaint filed for ‘post-modern coup’

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

People’s Voice Party (HAS) Deputy Chairman Şeref Malkoç speaks to reporters in front of the courthouse after filing a complaint against many names. AA photo

People’s Voice Party (HAS) Deputy Chairman Şeref Malkoç and several colleagues lodged a criminal complaint yesterday to the Ankara chief prosecutor, urging an investigation into the so-called “post-modern” coup that forced the resignation of Turkey’s first Islamist premier in 1997.

The application called for the arrest of then army chief İsmail Hakkı Karadayı, his aides Çevik Bir, Erol Özkasnak and Osman Özbek, as well as Kemal Gürüz, who headed the Higher Education Board (YÖK) at the time.

The late Necmettin Erbakan, who headed a coalition government, stepped down in June 1997 after less than a year in power as a result of a harsh army-led campaign, sparked by fears that Turkey’s secular system was in danger. The period is also known as the Feb. 28 Process in reference to the date of a landmark meeting of the National Security Council in 1997, at which the military imposed a series of measures to the government targeting mainly the education realm.

“If we look back on that period, there were soldiers at the Turkish General Staff who shouldered Erbakan. There were generals who heavily insulted the prime minister in ways that do not suit the tradition and manners of the state. No one should get away with such actions,” Malkoç said.

“There were tens of thousands of children whose rights of education were taken away. Thousands of our citizens were blacklisted,” he said. “These mistakes are bleeding wounds in the conscience of our nation. We are submitting this criminal complaint so that such actions don’t take place in Turkey again.”