Jailed MHP deputy slams Chief of Staff for coup case stance

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

Engin Alan, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)’s Istanbul deputy, said if even a word of the Balyoz coup plan indictment was true he would accept to remain “in the prison for a century.”

Engin Alan, the opposition deputy who was handed an 18-year sentence for his role in the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) coup plan, has said Chief of Staff Necdet Özel’s silence and refusal to comment on the trial was not right.

Alan, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)’s Istanbul deputy, said if even a word of the Balyoz coup plan indictment was true he would accept to remain “in the prison for a century.”

“I am ready to give up my religion and my nation if it is true. They slaughtered 237 military officers of the Turkish Army like sheep. Everyone that was serving at the Turkish Commander of the War Colleges was arrested. Naval Academy, Air War Academy commanders, their deputies, their staff officers, they were all arrested. Only the army staff college commander was out of all this, that’s the chief of staff Necdet Özel,” Engin Alan said during the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) visit on Oct. 21 to the Mamak Prison in Ankara, according to the daily Hürriyet’s report.

Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Özel released a written statement on Oct. 21 concerning the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) verdict, underlining that he was “just a public servant whose duty is defined by laws,” following questions over his silence after the coup case verdict was released.

The verdicts of such historic cases should be discussed by experts, evaluated by legislative and executive bodies, and the soul-searching for the verdicts should be done by the nation, Özel said.

“Due to my corporate identity, I think I don’t have a right to comment on subjects that were submitted to the court, and I do not find it right to share my opinions with the public via the press. I find it sufficient to declare that I have personally shared my views with the related authorities,” he added.

Alan also said the Turkish Navy could not even find a commander to lead the Turkish Navy after “the slaughter” they carried out against the commanders.

“They slaughtered the 20 most successful 20 staff officers of the navy one by one. It is such a conspiracy that they accused Turkish soldiers of prostitution, of staging a coup, terror. With the Balyoz verdicts, 300 sons of the nation were smothered alive,” Alan said.