Convicted general released due to dementia

MUĞLA

Çevik Bir, a retired Turkish general who received life imprisonment in Aug. 21, 2021, for his link to Türkiye’s “1997 military memorandum,” called as “postmodern coup,” has been discharged from prison due to dementia.

The 83-year-old Bir arrived at his house in the southwestern province of Muğla’s Bodrum district late on Aug. 1 in the company of his wife and sister.

Without answering any questions by reporters, Bir only said, “These places have changed so much.”

“1997 military memorandum” refers to the decisions issued by the Turkish military leadership on a National Security Council meeting on Feb. 28, 1997. This memorandum initiated the process that precipitated the resignation of the then prime minister Necmettin Erbakan.

The incident has been famously labelled a “postmodern coup” by a Turkish admiral.

In a lawsuit opened years after, Bir got life imprisonment and was in jail for a year.

His lawyer applied to court on June 15, saying that due to dementia, the retired general has “severe health problems.”

According to the lawyer, Bir was forgetting to eat and having health troubles from staying hungry.

The court on Aug. 1 decided a “suspension of sentence” and released the retired general.

Born in 1939 in the western province of İzmir, Bir became a four-star general and served three years as vice chairman of the Turkish Armed Forces in the 1990s.