Former chief of staff to testify over FETÖ remarks

ANKARA

An Ankara prosecutor has called former chief of general staff, İlker Başbuğ, to testify over his indirect accusation against some ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmakers that they had initiated a legal amendment that paved the way for special authorized courts to prosecute military personnel in 2009.

Başbuğ had suggested that this legal amendment was taken to parliament upon the advices of FETÖ, demanding the lawmakers who put their signature on the law be questioned.

Six lawmakers from the AKP have filed criminal complaints against Başbuğ over his remarks on the ground that the former top soldier “accused [them] of being FETÖ’s political establishment.”

The lawmakers’ move came after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called them on to file lawsuits against Başbuğ.

Başbuğ, who had served as the chief of general staff between 2008 and 2010, suggested that the law amendment that paved the way for the special authorized courts to prosecute military personnel had been adopted in 2019 “at the hands of FETÖ.”

Başbuğ said these courts that were under the control of FETÖ had been used to conduct a series of plots against the army’s top personnel, including himself, adding that had the law not been passed FETÖ’s structure within the army would be revealed and the coup attempt of July 15, 2016 would have been prevented.