Turkish press review

The Milliyet daily reported that an İstanbul court has accepted an indictment against Turkey's former chief of General Staff, ret. Gen. İlker Başbuğ. The former military chief was charged with being one of the senior masterminds in the alleged Ergenekon network within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). The prosecutor is seeking a lifetime sentence for Başbuğ for plotting to overthrow the government by means of a military coup. The Zaman daily said the prosecutor has also charged Başbuğ with leading a group that campaigned to defame the government.

“Mediterranean operation for Damascus” read a Sabah daily for a story on Turkey's proposal to use the Mediterranean to create a corridor for an international humanitarian aid campaign to Syria. The daily said Turkey rejects proposals to deliver aid via Turkey's border with Syria and that Turkey's plan includes the use of naval ships and a British base on Cyprus.

“They died in vain” was the headline for a Vatan daily news report on a panel of Turkish lawmakers who watched surveillance footage from unmanned drones that led an aerial assault on a group of villagers smuggling diesel fuel. The attack was based on faulty intelligence that armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) members would be crossing the border at that time. “The video footage shows everything. They died in vain,” the daily quoted an opposition lawmaker as saying. However, a lawmaker with the ruling Justice

and Development Party (AK Party) quibbled, “One could not conclude that they weren't terrorists from watching the video footage alone.”

The Hürriyet daily reported that Turkey had submitted İstanbul's bid for nomination as a candidate to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games. An official with Turkey's National Olympic Committee presented Turkey's dossier to the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne.