Army will continue to work with police to boost security: Army chief

ANKARA

The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and the police will continue to work together, Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar has said, as he commented on the July 15 failed coup attempt believed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government to be masterminded by the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ).

“The police and soldiers are brothers and united. Security and the architecture of security are united. No distinction between these can be made,” Akar told a group of police officers on July 24 during a visit to the Ankara Police Headquarters, which was subjected to attacks by the coup plotting soldiers. 

He also visited the Gölbaşı Special Operations Department in Ankara, where bombing by coup plotting soldiers killed 50 police officers.

“The soldiers and the police will continue to work together. We love both our police and soldiers. The Turkish Republic is standing firm and the TSK is in full chain of command. The ones that made the TSK go through such a disgrace cannot be accepted as TSK members. These are snakes, centipedes and terrorists dressed in soldiers’ clothes,” he told the police officers in Gölbaşı. 

“These friends [police officers] are the ones who advance on bullets without even blinking in the east and southeast,” Akar also said, referring to the police officers assigned to conduct security operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

Akar also visited parliament on July 24. He was scheduled to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at 5 p.m.
Meanwhile, Air Forces Commander Gen. Abidin Ünal said the Air Force was in full compliance with the chief of staff, as he refuted previous reports on him not trusting any military personnel. 

The Air Force and Akar were working on eliminating FETÖ members together, Ünal also said.

“We are continuing efforts with our chief of staff with absolute obedience and great compliance to clear the terrorist traitors, who are illegal gang members and have grown into tumors among us, with great determination, ambition, belief and cooperation night and day,” Ünal said on July 24, while adding that “no one should have any doubts on the subject.”

“A speech that I made in the Air Force has been intentionally distorted and given to the press,” Ünal also said.

A previous report by pro-government daily Yeni Şafak stated that Ünal, who was held hostage by the coup plotting soldiers, “didn’t believe in the statements released from the general staff.” 

“The statement from the general staff is not true. I won’t defend them. There’s no one left to trust,” Yeni Şafak quoted Ünal as saying on July 23, while speaking to his staff, as it added that the Air Force chief didn’t believe what Akın Öztürk, a former air force chief already arrested as one of the key suspects, said about the attempted coup night.

A statement released from the TSK on July 21 said that Ünal called Öztürk and told him that the jets that took off from the Akıncı Airbase in Ankara in the attempted coup night were illegal.

“He also asked him to try to persuade those involved in the uprising,” the statement read.