Başbuğ trial renders coups history: Arınç
ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News
Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç criticizes the main opposition party. AA photo
The military will no longer be able to stage a coup to topple elected governments, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said yesterday to private channel TV8.The trial of former top commander İlker Başbuğ was very important in demonstrating “no one in Turkey remains untouchable,” he added. “Coups are history in Turkey. People are now able to believe there will no coups staged in Turkey; this is a result of the democratization process and harmonization of civil-military ties with the Western norms; it is a result of the 10 new cases [opened against the coup plotters],” said Arınç, referring to the indictment prepared against two former commanders who staged a coup in 1980.
The deputy prime minister slammed opposition parties for not recognizing this. Arınç said those who suffered from recent military interventions into politics in 2007 and 1996 have been going to court to file criminal complaints.
“We will wait for the courts’ decisions regarding these applications,” he said.
Claiming some senior figures within the Republican People’s Party (CHP) such as Onur Öymen supported the military’s e-memorandum of 2007, Arınç said: “Those who applauded these interventions at the time now seem to be compliant with the April 27 memo. They better stay silent because they fell in a strange situation.” Arınç further criticized the CHP for openly backing both military interventions but said they received 47 percent of votes due to their resistance to the military.
Regarding Başbuğ’s arrest, Arınç said it was the former top commander who depicted a plan aimed at discrediting the government. “It was he who said he ordered two military officers to monitor my house,” he added. “We have to wait and see what the judiciary will find out.”
