A Turkish prosecutor has demanded consecutive aggravated life sentences for 60 people including İsmail Hakkı Karadayı, former chief of general staff, and Çevik Bir, former deputy chief of general staff, for their role in the Feb. 28, 1997 postmodern coup, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
One hundred three people were tried for their role in the Feb. 28 coup.
A coalition government led by a now-defunct conservative party, the Welfare Party (RP), which was the party of then-Istanbul Mayor Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was forced to resign by the Turkish military on Feb. 28, 1997 on the grounds that there was rising religious fundamentalism in the country.
Erdoğan was sentenced to a 10 months in prison for reciting a poem during a public address in the province of Siirt in 1997.