Retired general arrested in ‘post-modern coup’ case

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Erol Özkasnak, one of the most well-known figures of the ‘post-modern coup’ was taken to Ankara following his detention in the southeastern province of Muğla. AA photo

Eight soldiers including retired general Erol Özkasnak were arrested in the second wave of the Feb 28 post-modern coup probe, daily Hürriyet reported today.

Three retired soldiers were released, report said.

Soilders questioned in 'post-modern coup' case


Special-authority prosecutors yesterday began questioning a second batch of soldiers detained over the 1997 “post-modern coup,” as reports claimed that the expanding investigation was also looking into the military’s ties with the United States and Israel at the time.

Eight suspects – four retired soldiers and four acting officers – had been handed over to the judicial authorities yesterday when the Hürriyet Daily News went to print. The prosecutors asked the court to arrest four of them pending trial, according to the CNN-Türk news channel. Two others, among them retired two-star general Erol Özkasnak, one of the leading figures in the “post-modern coup,” were still at the Ankara police headquarters, where they spent the night following their detention the previous day. In the meantime, one of the two retired soldiers whom police had failed to locate turned himself in. The detention warrant covered a total of 12 people, following the arrest of 18 suspects last week.

The four acting soldiers questioned by special-authority prosecutors at the Ankara Palace of Justice were identified as colonels Mustafa Hakan Bural, Ahmet Dağcı, Mustafa İhsan Tavazar and Seyfullah Sönmez.

Özkasnak’s wife, meanwhile, praised the police conduct during the search at their home in Bodrum. “The teams were very courteous and polite. They didn’t do anything that would annoy or humiliate us,” relatives quoted Gülçin Reyhan Özkasnak as saying. Police have been heavily criticized formerly for pre-dawn raids and rough searches at suspects’ homes.

Özkasnak is one of the most well-known figures of the “post-modern coup” or the “February 28 process,” which saw the late Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan resign as a result of a harsh army-led secularist campaign, triggered by fears that Turkey’s secular system was in danger. Özkasnak was the Secretary General of the General Staff at the time and was responsible for relations with media. He has been widely accused of having exerted pressure on media bosses, editors and columnists to comply with the military’s line.