The surviving members of the junta that led Turkey’s 1980 coup have defended their actions to a court hearing a case against them, saying they acted in line with the Constitution.
"I was a member of the National Security Council at that time, which was the 'founding government' and, therefore, [an institution] whose acts can not be subject to any crime according to the Constitution,” retired Gen. Tahsin Şahinkaya, 87, said in his defense from his hospital bed.
"This court does not have the competence to judge us, the Turkish Armed Forces, which fulfilled their responsibility by performing this coup. We made the most appropriate choice for the Turkish nation,” Şahinkaya said while refusing to answer any questions directed at him.
One of the intervening lawyers in the case, Fikret Babaoğlu, said today that Şahinkaya and the main coup leader, Kenan Evren, should give their pleas in court regarding the “systematic torture” exercised by the army in the aftermath of the coup.
The judge of Ankara’s 12th Court of Serious Crimes, however, agreed with Evren’s lawyer, saying the torture claims should be tried as part of a different case.
