Former Turkish PM given date to testify in February 28 case

ISTANBUL

Former Prime Minister Tansu Çiller will testify in court as a “complainant” of the Feb. 28 coup probe on Sept. 27, CNN Türk has reported.

Çiller, who was the coalition partner of the Islamist Welfare Party (RP) against which the coup was designed in 1997, will testify at Istanbul’s 23rd Criminal Court in September with a “complainant” statute, as she was listed as a “victim” by the court investigating the probe.

Çiller, the former leader of the True Path Party (DYP), also held the foreign minister post in the government of Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, who had to resign later that year due to a campaign by the military accusing the government of undermining the secular republic. The events are referred to as a “post-modern coup.”

Merve Kavakçı, a former deputy who was barred from participating in the parliamentary sessions with her headscarf, and public prosecutor Reşat Petek, who had filed suit against a rector who had not let female students wearing headscarves attend their classes, are also among the complainants.