An Ankara court on Monday sentenced 13 people, including retired generals, military officers and a former higher education official, to 18 years in prison in a retrial over their role in a 1997 military intervention known as the February 28 “postmodern coup,” the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The Ankara 5th High Criminal Court found the defendants guilty of aiding an attempt to overthrow the government after years of proceedings that drew attention for both their political significance and the advanced age of many defendants. Among those convicted were retired generals Orhan Yöney and Şükrü Sarıışık and Kemal Gürüz, a former president of the Higher Education Board (YÖK).
Gürüz, 78, was partly responsible for pushing through a notorious headscarf ban at Turkish universities, which was abolished in 2010.
The court dismissed the cases against three defendants who died during the trial. Other defendants denied wrongdoing, calling the case a politically driven plot and blaming what they referred to as the Gülen movement. They claimed that pro-Gülen prosecutors and judges were behind the trial against them.
The Turkish government labels the movement, inspired by US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, a terrorist organization and accuses it of masterminding a failed coup in July 2016. The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or in terrorism. Gülen died in the US at the age of 83 last year.
Defense lawyers argued the retrial lacked concrete evidence and called for acquittal, citing their clients’ advanced age and poor health, according to Anadolu.
The verdict followed a 2021 decision by Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals that overturned earlier rulings for 16 defendants, including life sentences for four former officials and dismissed charges against 12 others on statute-of-limitations grounds. The retrial began that November.
The February 28 process was one of modern Turkey’s major military interventions in politics. It led to restrictions on religious expression and a crackdown on parties and politicians accused by the military establishment of trying to erode the country’s secular system.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, then mayor of İstanbul, was forced to step down during the period and was imprisoned for four months in 1999 for reciting a nationalist poem at a rally.
Critics argue Erdoğan has since perpetuated a cycle of political persecution, using the judiciary against his opponents in much the same way the military once targeted him.
The original case was launched in 2013 against 103 defendants, including high-ranking generals, bureaucrats and academics. Proceedings have been marred by disputes over evidence and claims the case was fabricated by members of the Gülen movement to target senior officers.