Gen Doğan ends his plea in coup-plot case

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency

Retired General Çetin Doğan, who is currently under arrest, completed his plea in the ongoing coup-plot case known as Sledgehammer (Balyoz) yesterday in Istanbul’s 10th Court for Serious Crimes at Silivri Prison. He said he could not understand why there is disturbance from the inclusion of reactionary incidents to be discussed in a (Balyoz) military scenario when there were some reactionary statements from the Turkish politicians.

Sledgehammer is an alleged military coup plot against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said to have been set up in 2003. According to allegations, the military planned drastic measures to spur unrest in the country in order to remove the AKP from power. These measures included bombing two major mosques in Istanbul, attacking a military museum disguised as religious extremists and raising tensions with Greece by attacking a Turkish plane and blaming the incident on the Aegean neighbor.

“In a [political] environment where party leaders carry some statements such as ‘a fair system will come absolutely, will it be bloody or not, time will show us’ to [the country’s] agenda, why is it annoying to argue scenarios including a [to halt] reactionist, separatist movements within martial law plans in the back stages of the army,” Doğan said, referring to the words of former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan in a parliamentary speech made on April 13, 1994. “The Welfare (Refah) Party will come to power, the fair system will rule. What is the matter then? Will transition be with or without blood,” Erbakan had said at the time. 

Criticism to 920 pages of opinion

The prosecutor said Doğan’s statement on Erbakan’s words was proof of “his coup plans.” “Nobody knows what the notion of ‘national consensus government’ means in the plans,” the prosecutor said.
Doğan also criticized the 920 pages of opinion as to the accusations and said that “reading the 18-page summary of it is out of Law of Criminal Procedure.” Doğan also said the opinion as to the accusations was biased and full of factual errors. He also said the opinion on the accusations was “copy-paste,” and prepared in 3 hours and 33 minutes. Doğan demanded it be rejected by the board of the court.