Surviving leaders of 1980 coup face lifetime service in Turkey

The only surviving members of Turkey’s 1980 military coup d’etat, Kenan Evren,aged 94, and Tahsin Şahinkaya, aged 86, are facing a life imprisonment sentence if a court accepts an indictment, accusing them of ‘untentionally attempting to force Turkish Parliament to annul itself or stop it from fulfilling its duties’, Hurriyet Daily News reports.

An Ankara prosecutor has completed his investigation into the 1980 military coup and recommended that the two surviving putsch leaders be sentenced to life imprisonment for their role in the takeover.

Public prosecutor Kemal Çetin sent the indictment to the court yesterday, accusing Kenan Evren, the Chief of General Staff during the Sept. 12, 1980, military coup, and Tahsin Şahinkaya, air forces commander at the time, of “intentionally attempting to force Turkish Parliament to annul itself or stop it from fulfilling its duties.”

Şahinkaya, 86, and Evren, 94, are the only surviving members of Evren’s five-man junta that seized power in 1980. The National Security Board (MGK), which was formed after the coup and brought together the top commanders, ruled the country under martial law until the general elections in 1983.