Coups to be investigated by victims

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Political parties in Parliament yesterday assigned members to a newly established commission tasked with investigating coups and military interventions, largely selecting deputies who had been victims of the 1980 putsch.

Ten of the 17 seats on the commission were allocated to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which assigned, among others, its only deputy with a military background, retired Air Force Gen. Şirin Ünal. AKP lawmaker and former Education Minister Nimet Baş was named the head of the commission, having been chosen for the position by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Other lawmakers named by the AKP included Naci Bostancu, Selçuk Özdağ and Yaşar Karayel, who were arrested and put on trial after the 1980 coup as part of its prosecutions of far-right groups. The Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP) members Özcan Yeniçeri and Atilla Kaya were also victims of the coup.
The four deputies assigned by the Republican People’s Party (CHP) -- Süleyman Çelebi, Ali Rıza Öztürk, Ahmet Toptaş and Mehmet Şeker -- were also prosecuted after the coup, but as members of the leftist movement.

The Peace and Democracy Party’s (BDP) only representative on the commission, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, was not only imprisoned after the coup, but was also subjected to torture.