Turkey’s retired Army General Kenan Evren (file photo)
The 12th Heavy Crime Court in Ankara endorsed the indictment on Tuesday, which seeks life imprisonment for retired Turkish generals Kenan Evren, 94, and Tahsin Sahinkaya, 86, on charges of committing “acts against the forces of the state.”
Evren and Sahinkaya, along with three other Army generals who are not alive today, took power in the September 1980 military coup, which saw the overthrow of the then Turkish government.
With the endorsement of the indictment, the two remaining generals will be put on trial.
“The time of… the coups are a thing of the past,” due to the reforms implemented by the government to reduce military influence in politics, Turkey‘s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech in parliament on Tuesday.
The Turkish Army’s political influence has decreased since the rise of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) to power in 2002.
The Turkish military has carried out three coups in 1960, 1971, and 1980.
MAB/AS/HN
Source: http://www.presstv.ir/