A court has arrested 26 senior generals on charges of playing a role in the failed coup aimed at toppling democratically elected President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government.
The 26 placed under arrest by the Ankara court include former Air Force Commander, General Akın Öztürk, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the plot, although he has denied this accusation.
They were all remanded to custody after a hearing that ended late Monday, Anadolu Agency (AA) said.
The generals have now been sent to prison awaiting trial, the date for which has not yet been set. They are charged with crimes including seeking to overturn the constitutional order, leading an armed group and seeking to assassinate the president.
The main suspect in Friday's coup attempt in Turkey has rejected accusations of taking part in the events which claimed 208 lives and injured almost 1,500 people.
In a three-page testimony seen by an Anadolu Agency correspondent, General Akın Öztürk, the retired air force commander and a member of the Supreme Military Council, tells an Ankara prosecutor he did not plan or direct the coup attempt.
An Ankara court remanded 26 generals, including Öztürk, over suspected coup links on Monday.
In his testimony Öztürk says: "I am not the person who planned and directed the military coup on July 15. I do not know who planned and directed it."
"Chief of the General Staff Hulusi Akar, the commander of air force Abidin Ünal, deputy chief of the General Staff Yaşar Güler and other generals from the air forces who were there are witnesses that I did not participate in this coup," Öztürk said.
"In my experience, I think that the attempted military coup has been staged by the parallel structure. But I cannot make out who within the armed forces organized and conducted all this," he added.
"A military coup attempt would be the work of foreign missions who want a weak Turkey. The person who is in Pennsylvania does not have the power to order this work," he said, referring to Fetullah Gülen, a U.S.-based cleric who lives in self imposed exile.
The attempted takeover is said to have been organized by followers of Gülen, who is accused of a long-standing campaign to overthrow the government through supporters within the Turkish state, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
