Anxious wait for kin of detained troops
CHARGED: Fathers say sons following orders, blame US-based ulama
FAMILIES of some of the thousands of soldiers detained in the wake of Turkey’s failed coup anxiously waited for news on Wednesday of their relatives and tried to catch a glimpse of them outside the court house here.
Turkey has detained senior military figures, including 118 generals and admirals, following the coup attempt, but many of those held are also likely to have been young conscripts doing compulsory military service.
Their family members strained for a quick look at their sons as the men were brought by bus, their hands tied behind their backs, to court.
They were then led in for hearings, which would decide if they were to be remanded in custody or set free.
Ahmet, a father of a conscript, said his son had been caught up in a plot.
Like the government, he blamed the coup on the United States-based ulama
Fethullah Gulen.
“Because of these games in our country, of these Gulenist terrorists, of this plague of a coup, the majors are giving orders to our children, they send them out.
“Our young people, when they realised they’ve been tricked, surrendered to the police. After the police, they are brought down here.”
Fearing his son could face life in prison, he addressed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
“We didn’t deserve that, my dear president! I am for the AKP, I’m one of the founders, I’m the head of my district. It didn’t have to end up like this.
“I can’t stand it. I can’t stand it, especially the handcuffs.”
Cuneyt, from the Aegean city of Izmir, said his son had just begun military service.
“I’ve sent my son to do his military service not even three days ago, and... he is accused of a coup!
“When you give an order to a policeman, they can discuss it. But a soldier doesn’t have the right. They don’t have the right to ask questions.
“If a soldier is told to salute a tree, he will. If he’s asked to salute a stone, he will. He must obey the major’s orders, from his commander.”
In Ankara, the authorities yesterday imposed a three-month state of emergency, strengthening powers to round up suspects accused of staging the failed coup despite global alarm over a widening purge.
Erdogan declared the state of emergency, the first in Turkey in one and a half decades, shortly before midnight after a five-hour meeting of his national security council.
But with concern growing over respect of the rule of law in Turkey almost a week after the coup that left over 300 dead and raised fears of chaos, Erdogan insisted that democracy would not be compromised.
The state of emergency was needed “to remove swiftly all the elements of the terrorist organisation involved in the coup attempt”, he said at the presidential palace here.
He suggested that there would be further detentions.
The crackdown has been extraordinary in scope. Some 50,000 state employees have been detained or lost their jobs.
More than 20,000 people have been dismissed from their jobs in state education, and a similar number in the private sector have been stripped of their licences.