Coup commission’s CHP members seek to hear jailed generals

ANKARA – Doğan News Agency

The Turkish Parliament’s coup investigation commission members from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) have said they have applied to the Justice Ministry to visit and hear testimony from a group of high-ranking soldiers suspected of playing key roles in the July 15 coup attempt and now in jail pending trial.

The CHP’s Zeynel Emre, Aytun Çıray, Sezgin Tanrıkulu and Aykut Erdoğdu said they submitted a request to hear from the jailed soldiers Akın Öztürk, Mehmet Dişli, Hakan Evrim, Hüseyin Türk, İbrahim Yılmaz and Mehmet Partigöç at Sincan Prison in the capital Ankara. 

They said this demand was their attempt to clarify the “points that have been kept in the dark” regarding the coup activities. 

Emre said listening to the suspects is “a must” in order to identify how the attempt was planned, adding that they regarded the attitude adopted at commission meetings by ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) members as an “attempt to cover up the coup attempt.” 

The CHP commission members also argued that the body was distorted from its original aims around a month after the beginning of its work. 

Meanwhile, Emre also said the CHP group in the commission would apply to the prime minister to meet with the chief general staff and the head of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT).