Heroes to battered ‘traitors’: the main suspects in Turkey coup
ANKARA: Just a week ago they would have been seen as gleaming representatives of their country and one of its most respected institutions.
But now top figures within the military detained over Turkey’s coup plot are regarded as heinous traitors, paraded before state media looking battered and humiliated.
So far 125 generals and admirals have been detained, 109 of whom have already been placed under arrest by the courts.
Images published by the state-run Anadolu news agency showed many of them face to the wall, their hands tied with plastic handcuffs.
While several figures of national renown have been detained, government officials said it is still unclear who was the number-one leader of the coup on the ground, which the authorities blame on US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.
“We do not know yet. It is not yet clear,” Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said at a briefing with foreign reporters this week.
“There are so many names in the file, so many mid- and-high level personnel,” he said.
Responding to the images of the suspects looking in a bad physical condition, he said their injuries had been caused by fighting during Friday’s coup bid and not abuse in interrogation. “This is the result of combat,” said Kurtulmus.
Here are some of the top people under suspicion.
Ex-Air Force chief, General Akin Ozturk