ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Turkish authorities detained ten former admirals on Monday after a group of more than a hundred retired top officers issued a statement linking government officials to Turkey’s history of military coups.
The ten retired admirals were detained as part of an investigation, which was launched by the chief prosecutor in Ankara on Sunday, on suspicion that they ” reached an agreement with the aim of committing a crime against the safety of the state and the constitutional order ”. The state-owned Anadolu agency of Turkey reported.
Four others were not detained due to their advanced age, but they were asked to report to the authorities within three days, reports Anadolu.
A total of 103 retired admirals signed the declaration, declaring that they were bound by an international treaty governing shipping through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Black Sea. It is believed that the 14 suspects arranged the statement.
The statement came amid a debate over whether Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who withdrew from the International Convention for the Protection of Women at an international convention last month, also withdrew from the Montreux 1936 Treaty. regulating the passage through the strait, and other international treaties.
Erdogan’s plan to build an alternative waterway north of Istanbul that would bypass the Bosphorus also sparked a debate over the Montreux Treaty.
“The fact that withdrawal from the Montreux Convention has been opened for debate as part of talks on Canal Istanbul and the authority to withdraw from international treaties is a matter of concern,” the retired admiral said in a statement released late Saturday. was made.
The statement caused strong condemnation by ruling parties and government officials who drew a parallel with statements that have accompanied military takeovers in Turkey in the past.
Turkey experienced coups in 1960, 1971 and 1980, and a military intervention in 1997 led to the resignation of an Islamic coalition government. In 2016, a failed coup led to more than 250 deaths.
Anadolu reported that the detainees also include Cem Gurdeniz, the name behind Turkey’s controversial “Blue Homeland” doctrine, which claims to be large parts of the Mediterranean and Aegean islands and their insignificant energy deposits. The concept is contrary to the claims of Greece and Cyprus in the region.
The suspects were detained in their homes in Ankara, Istanbul and Kocaeli and had to be questioned by the chief prosecutor’s office in the capital.