On Wednesday the Constitutional Court ruled that the defendants' rights in the Sledgehammer coup trial, where several generals were convicted of plotting to overthrow a democratically elected government, were violated. Now the door is open for releasing these exgenerals and other ex-military personnel from prison.
Those who had always benefitted from military rule in the past and who support the generals have targeted the Sledgehammer case, declaring that the generals were illegally arrested and convicted. They have used the pretext that this was all an act of revenge by the Fethullah Gulen religious community in retaliation for the 1997 postmodern coup against the pro-Islam Erbakan government.
Their claim is that the Gulen community positioned its followers in the courts and as prosecutors to have the generals and others in the military convicted through arbitrary means and thrown into prison.
In a recent drive to secure the release of the ex-generals they are actually using the fact that the disillusion with the Erdoğan government by those affiliated with the Gulen Movement has led the government to weed out security personnel, prosecutors and judges close to the community.
In the days of the trial we had warned several times that the legal authorities were committing judicial mistakes against the defendants in the Sledgehammer case even though they could have been convicted without this unnecessary use of bending the rules to further hurt those involved with the coup plot. On Wednesday the Constitutional Court did its duty as a responsible judicial body.
However, no one should try to use the court ruling to prove the innocence of those who plotted the coup. Yes, just as in the Ergenekon case, they were involved in a plot to overthrow the popularly elected government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan - but this time they were caught red handed. In the past, the generals were successful several times - in 1960, 1971 and 1980 - and these coups seriously hurt the country. Ironically, also on Wednesday, a court in Ankara convicted the leaders of the 1980 military coup, Kenan Evren and Tahsin Şahinkaya who overthrew the Demirel government and sentenced both of them to life imprisonment.
The Sledgehammer case was not fictional. The generals did not understand the massive social changes happening in Turkey and felt they could topple Erdoğan … but they failed. Now everyone involved in this coup attempt should pay. Now is the time to properly weed out those who were actually involved in the coup plot and find those who were mistakenly prosecuted. The generals were no angels. Let no one make any mistake about that.
