Former PM Çiller and Interior Minister Akşener top victims of Feb. 28 coup: Indictment

ANKARA – Anatolia News Agency

The former leader of the True Path Party (DYP) Tansu Çiller was the deputy prime minister and foreign minister under Necmettin Erbakan's government. DHA photo

Ankara Prosecutors’ Office sent to court the final indictment in Turkey’s Feb. 28 coup probe on May 22, placing the former Prime Minister Tansu Çiller and former Interior Minister Meral Akşener as the leading victims of the case. 

At the time, Çiller, who was the leader of the True Path Party (DYP), was the coalition partner of the Welfare Party (RP), against which the alleged coup was designed, and was also foreign minister in Necmettin Erbakan’s government. Akşener, also a member of the DYP and a name close to Çiller, was the interior minister during the “Refah-Yol” coalition.

Retired Chief of General Staff Gen. İsmail Hakkı Karadayı was placed at the top of the suspect list, along with other prominent generals such as the then Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Çevik Bir, the then 1st Army Commander Çetin Doğan, and retired two-star general Erol Özkasnak, believed to be one of the leading figures of the coup attempt. 

Some former Welfare Party members also are among the 481 “victims” of the case, such as former minister former Justice Minister Şevket Kazan. Merve Kavakçı, a former deputy who was barred from participating in the parliamentary sessions after she refused to remove her headscarf, is also on the “victims” list. 

A Feb. 28, 1997, military memorandum sparked turmoil that led to the resignation of the ruling coalition government later that year; the events, which came to be known as the Feb. 28 process, are often referred to as a “post-modern” coup.