Bahçeli calls for widened coup probe

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

All military interventions in Turkey’s history, including the e-memorandum of April 27, 2007, should be investigated, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli said April 14, questioning a potential agreement between the prime minister and the former army chief, Yaşar Büyükanıt.

“Those who attempted a military coup or who prepared a plan or project for it should give an account before the court. Those who closed down the Parliament on Sept. 12 [1980], those who made balance adjustments on Feb. 28 [1997] or those who attempted to shape politics on April 27 [2007] should get the penalties they deserve,” Bahçeli said April 14 at a party meeting.

Commenting on the ongoing probe into the Feb. 28 process of 1997, Bahçeli urged judicial authorities to extend the inquiry, indicating that military officials had civilian collaborators during the coup processes.
While expressing his support for the Feb. 28 investigation, Bahçeli urged the government to reveal the contents of a secret meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Büyükanıt which took place in 2007.

“The memorandum of April 27 was announced during the AKP term. The prime minister himself covered up the issue after the secret meeting of Dolmabahçe [May 5, 2007]. Since Turkey has been more democratic [since then], according to the AKP, the prime minister should reveal the talks and the bargaining from that secret meeting,” Bahçeli said.