Recent findings suggest that the generals who prepared Sledgehammer, the bloodiest of a series of subversive plots discovered in the past couple of years, were planning to take control of the economy with a series of tough measures. The İstanbul 10th High Criminal Court on Monday accepted the indictment against military officers suspected of involvement in Sledgehammer. The details in the indictment reveal plans to lay the groundwork for a military takeover of the economy. A calculatingly prepared roadmap brings to mind the term “pincer movement,” a military term used to describe a tactic to encircle and render impotent the enemy forces.
The indictment found that following the ban on any political movement, the junta planned to take full control of the economy. The major targets as defined in the plan were to put retired generals in charge of banks, block money transfers abroad, confiscate the Islamic financial institutions and to freeze the bank accounts of foreign companies and individuals in Turkey. The junta also allegedly planned to confiscate the belongings of any individuals or corporations whom they suspected of being involved in reactionary and separatist movements. The generals were planning to eventually transfer all deposits in the country’s banks to the Treasury in a bid to claim full control of money transfers, the backbone of economic activities.
The details in the indictment make clear the steps that would be taken shortly after the announcement of the planned coup. Accordingly, the accused generals were allegedly planning to place all means of transportation, public and private institutions, hospitals, shopping malls, customs facilities and warehouses under military control while entry to and exit from the country would be prohibited.
