Ankara: Confusion surrounds the alleged role of General Akin Ozturk in Friday night’s failed coup following contradictory claims by the Turkish government about his involvement.
Turkey’s state news agency Anadolu reported on Monday that the former air force commander had confessed to planning the foiled coup, only to later send a follow-up report claiming the very opposite. Anadolu’s earlier report quoted him as telling interrogators that he had “acted with intention to stage a coup”.
“I don’t know who planned or directed it. According to my experiences, I think that the [Gulen movement] attempted this coup,” General Ozturk was quoted as telling prosecutors by Anadolu before appearing in court in Ankara.
“But I cannot tell who within the armed forces organised and carried it out. I have no information. I have fought against this structure.”
Gen Akin Ozturk and 26 senior officers were charged with treason and remanded in custody by a court on Monday.
But in a statement to prosecutors, the general insisted: “I am not the person who planned or led the coup.”
Officials have blamed the unrest, which killed over 200 people and wounded over a thousand people, on the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and the “parallel structure” they say he has formed to topple the government.
In an interview with the BBC on Monday evening, Gulen called the attempted takeover “treason” and urged the government to produce evidence of his alleged involvement, saying Turkey was no longer really a democracy.
Ozturk served as Commander of Turkey’s Air Force from 2013 to 2015, and was still on active duty at the time of the coup as a member of Turkey’s High Military Council (YAS), which oversees the country’s military, according to Time magazine. The military leader was due to retire in August at the next YAS meeting. He was born in 1952, according to his profile on the military’s website. From 1996 to 1998, he served as a military liaison in Israel.
Anadolu published images of Ozturk and other suspects on the stairs inside the Ankara courthouse, staring blankly into the camera with their hands tied behind their backs.
Ozturk has looked tired and haggard in images published by state media, with one of his ears heavily bandaged.
— With inputs from agencies
