Landmark trial of 1980 Turkish coup leaders opens in Ankara

Turkey’s landmark trial of the two surviving leaders of the 1980 military coup opened on Wednesday in an Ankara court, more than three decades after the army seized power for two years.
Former general Kenan Evren, 94, and his co-defendant Tahsin Sahinkaya, 86, are absent from the trial due to their poor health, are charged with ousting the civilian government on September 12, 1980.
Hundreds of demonstrators, mostly from left-wing political parties, staged a protest in front of the courthouse, chanting slogans demanding justice for the victims of the coup and brandishing banners. “This case is not abandoned,” one of the banners read. “Those who resisted will have the final say.”
A small child waved a banner apparently revealing that his grandfather was a victim of the coup: “Coup leaders, listen to me! My name is Umut (Hope). I will not abandon my grandfather.”
Another victim, 56-year-old Ali Imer, told AFP how he was arrested on September 12, the day of the coup and tortured.
“I was jailed for four years for membership of a left-wing political party. I had been tortured for 87 days,” he said. “They threatened to rape my wife if I refused to speak. I was given electro-shock.”
Several parliamentarians also joined the protest.
“This is a landmark case for Turkey’s recent history, but it shouldn’t be superficial,” said Sezgin Tanrikulu, lawmaker from the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). “Not only Evren and Sahinkaya, but also those who ordered the torture should be tried,” he said.
The pair face life imprisonment if convicted of committing crimes against the state — the heaviest punishment available since Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2002.
The military, which has long seen itself as the guarantor of secularism in Turkey, staged three coups in 1960, 1971 and 1980 as well as pressuring an Islamist-rooted government to relinquish power in 1997.
But the 1980 coup was the bloodiest of them all. Hundreds of thousands of people were arrested, about 250,000 were charged, 50 were executed, dozens more were tortured to death and tens of thousands were exiled.
“This trial offers an important opportunity to deliver justice for the gross human rights violations that followed the coup — most notably, mass torture and deaths in custody, which amount to crimes against humanity under the present Turkish Penal Code”, said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch.