General İlker Başbuğ, the former head of Turkey's armed forces, said military discipline has helped him adapt to prison life, but he still cannot accept the idea that he stands accused of being the leader of a terrorist group, Hurriyet Daily News reports.
Responding to questions relayed through his lawyer, the 68-year-old retired commander said his health was fine, morale good, and that he kept himself fit by regular exercise since being jailed in the top-security prison at Silivri, outside Istanbul, in early January. Başbuğ is the most senior officer among hundreds of secularists charged with conspiring to topple Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan's government because of its roots in political Islam.
"As (soldiers) we are trained for any distress and hardship, so there are no problems," Başbuğ told Reuters though his lawyer after a prison visit.
What he says flabbergasts him is "the allegation that as an intermediary leader of Ergenekon terrorist organization I have infiltrated the Turkish Armed Forces".
In 2007 police uncovered an alleged secret organization called Ergenekon, intent on toppling Erdoğan's government.
At the time the military was at political loggerheads with the ruling AK Party, which swept to power in 2002, over the nomination of Abdullah Gül for the presidency.
The military and judiciary were the bastions of secular state envisaged by the republic's founder, soldier statesman Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and generals and judges distrusted the AK Party leaders with an Islamist past.
Jailed Turkish general stays fit for court battle
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