Earlier this week, retired Gen. Kenan Evren, the officer who led the coup, testified to a specially authorized prosecutor over atrocities committed during the coup period. More recently, the same prosecutor questioned retired Gen. Tahsin Şahinkaya, another senior leader of the coup. Both retired generals told the prosecutor that they did not regret having staged the coup.
The cases of Evren and Şahinkaya mark a first for Turkey because it was the first time coup leaders were questioned for their activities. So far Turkey has witnessed three coups d’état -- in 1960, 1971 and 1980 -- and in 1997 the military forced a coalition government to step down. The two historic testimonies have come after a constitutional amendment package was adopted in a referendum on Sept. 12, 2010, which is coincidentally the anniversary of the coup. The package introduced many changes to the Constitution, including the removal of a temporary article that had been inserted by the generals after the coup, providing immunity from prosecution on coup-related charges to coup instigators.
Opponents of the amendment package argued that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, which sponsored the package, was misleading voters and it would never move to try coup instigators. For them, the coup leaders would go unpunished thanks to a statute of limitations even if the package was approved in the referendum. The coup leaders had expected to be protected by a statute of limitations in 2000, 20 years after the coup. However, a public prosecutor prepared an indictment against Evren in 2000, extending the statue of limitations for the coup generals for another 10 years. Now legal experts differ in their opinions as to whether Evren and Şahinkaya can still be tried for coup atrocities. While some argue that no trial can take place because the statute of limitations for the crime has expired, some others say trying the retired generals is still possible. According to journalist Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı, a columnist for the Taraf daily, Turkey would probably not even think about arresting a serving colonel who threatened the government with a coup d’état and sending him to jail three years ago, but we have witnessed a civilian prosecutor questioning two leaders of the 1980 coup recently. “Finally we arrived at the day when a fascist general, who staged the Sept. 12 coup, has been questioned,” the journalist wrote in one of his columns this week, and suggested that the AK Party government’s bold fight against criminal groups was the primary reason that strengthened the hand of the judiciary against coup plotters.
Many crimes against humanity were committed during the Sept. 12, 1980 coup. Forty-nine people were executed, 171 were killed by torture and 650 were detained for extended periods of time, most of them subjected to torture. A total of 210,000 cases were opened in military courts, 85,000 people faced charges for “thought crimes,” 1,683,000 people were categorized by the state on the basis of their political and religious beliefs. Prosecutors demanded capital punishment for 6,353 persons; 348,000 people were banned from traveling abroad and 14,509 civil servants were fired under the State of Emergency Law.
Referendum opponents still silent
Some strong opponents of the Sept. 12, 2010 referendum, who argued that the AK Party government would not try 1980 coup stagers as it promised in the constitutional amendment package, have abstained from any comment after the questioning of Evren and Şahinkaya. However, they were almost 100 percent sure that the AK Party government would not be able to try coup perpetrators. One of the opponents of the amendment package was Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who said perpetrators of the 1980 coup would not be tried or punished due to a statute of limitations. “They [the AK Party] say they will try coup perpetrators. Let them do what they say. How will they try them? Perpetrators of the Sept. 12 coup will not be tried due to a statute of limitations,” he argued when campaigning against the constitutional amendment package before the referendum. And Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli asked supporters of his party to vote against the constitutional amendment package, saying the AK Party was making a bluff by claiming that 1980 coup plotters would be put on trial if the package was approved in the referendum. After the referendum was held and the government was delayed in steps to investigate the coup leaders, Bahçeli said: “It is clearer today that the AK Party deceived voters when it pledged to settle accounts with the Sept. 12, 1980 coup.”
