Former chief of General Staff to testify to coup panel next week

ISTANBUL

Yaşar Büyükanıt. AA Photo

Former Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt will testify about the e-memorandum of 2007 on Nov. 8, daily Hürriyet has reported.

Büyükanıt was the head of the General Staff at the time of the e-memorandum of April 27, 2007.

Opposition deputies have previously insisted that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan should also testify about the e-memorandum, as well as the Dolmabahçe talks, a private meeting between Erdoğan and Büyükanıt at Dolmabahçe Palace at the time that has been the subject of much speculation over a possible secret deal.

However, the head of the parliamentary commission tasked with investigating military interventions dismissed recent suggestions yesterday that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan might be invited to testify.

The e-memorandum, posted on the military’s website around midnight on April 27, 2007, was the first episode in a chain of events that forced early general elections. In the statement, the army threatened to step in to protect Turkey’s secular system after Abdullah Gül of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) became a candidate for president.