Ahmet Zeki Üçok, a retired military prosecutor with the Air Forces Command, said on Sunday that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) would stage a military coup supported by the US if national unity is not maintained in the country.
“Who can carry out a coup without American consent,” said Üçok in response to a question by the T24 news website asking who would stage a coup if national unity is not maintained, recalling his recent warning.
In a series of messages from his Twitter account on Thursday Üçok wrote: “A process of chaos has been started in the aftermath of the coup attempt [on July 15]. [Turkish] martyrs are coming from the Southeast, Iraq and Syria. There are bloody attacks in cities. There is economic pressure. Let’s get united. The process of chaos has begun. If there is no national unity, the TSK will carry out a coup within the chain of command.”
Likening the recent developments in Turkey to the pre-Sept. 12, 1980 coup era, Üçok claimed that the US is behind all recent efforts at chaos in Turkey.
“Of course, the US. In fact, what you call FETÖ [a derogatory term coined by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government to refer to members of the Gülen movement] is America. What you call the PKK [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party] is America, What you call the PYD [Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party] is America,” said Üçok, when T24 asked who the people are who are fomenting chaos in Turkey.
Üçok also brought to mind a remark made by Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official, about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — the “walking dead” — a sign of the American position against Erdoğan.
Claiming that the Turkish military is still run by pro American generals, Üçok called on people to unite behind Erdoğan to prevent a “new American coup attempt”: “This is the only way out,” he said.
Retired military prosecutor Üçok was among the participants, along with journalist Nedim Şener and retired Lt. Gen. Ismail Hakki Pekin, of a panel on a July 15 coup attempt in Turkey, organized by the D.C.-based, pro-Erdoğan Turkish Heritage Organization in Washington on Sept. 29.
In a similar development pro-Erdoğan journalist Ömer Turan claimed in a series of tweets on Sunday that pro-NATO forces in the Turkish military could carry out a coup against Erdoğan and called on the government to replace military forces in Ankara and İstanbul with special police forces.