Former Chief of General Staff retired Gen. Hilmi Özkök kept going to make affirmations which are probably to greatly let down critics of current coup cases, especially the case against the Balyoz — or Sledgehammer — coup plot, on his second day of testimonial as a witness in the Ergenekon trial.
Özkök supposed he had discouraged military officers that a 2003 seminar at which participants allegedly enlisted a coup plot aiming the AK Party government “went beyond its aim.” The ex-military chief’s remarks came as he testified on Friday at the İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court, which is hearing the case against Ergenekon — a shady criminal network with alleged links to the state which is mistrusted of plotting to topple the government. “The seminar went beyond its intended aim and I discouraged my officers about it,” the ex-military chief said to the court. He was referring to a contentious meeting held at the General Staff’s Selimiye barracks in March 2003. A coup plot, named Sledgehammer, was enlisted during the seminar.
Plotters behind the coup plan strongly refuse making preparations for a armed forces takeover after information about the Sledgehammer case made its way to the press in 2010. Retired Gen. Çetin Doğan, a key suspect in the case, publicly told that Sledgehammer was a war game and not a plan to take over the government. Opposers of the Sledgehammer case have laid claim that the documents were contrived, the coup plan was constructed and that the records of the 2003 seminar were controlled to disbelieve the Turkish military; nevertheless, Özkök’s testimony disclosed that all these allegements are baseless.
Özkök said to judges that he didn’t attend the seminar due to his busy schedule, and added up, “This [Sledgehammer] seminar was executed as a dangerous scenario that went beyond its intended aim. It was actioned as though policy-making persons or political events were real. I called for the land forces commander to examine it [documents belonging to the seminar].”
Sledgehammer is a suspected coup plot considered to have been contrived in 2003 with the intention of unseating the AK Party government through fierce acts. According to the plan, the military was going to consistently agitate chaos in society through violent acts, including bomb attacks on the Fatih and Beyazıt mosques in İstanbul. The plot allegedly tried to undermine the government to lay the groundwork for a coup d’état. The military, which has overthrown 3 governments since 1960 and forced a conservative government to decrease in 1997, has denied such a plan.
