“Former deputy and former head of the Human Rights Association (İHD) Akın Birdal has stated that big businesses and media organs that enabled the military to stage the Feb. 28, 1997 unarmed military takeover, which resulted in the overthrowing of the coalition government of the time, should also be investigated as part of an ongoing probe into the military officers who staged the intervention.
Speaking at a conference organized by the Socialist Platform of the Oppressed (ESP) in Eskişehir on Sunday, Birdal said the media and capital owners played an important role in the Feb. 28 era. “The media moguls, the writers who encouraged the coup and business organizations including the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association [TÜSİAD] and employer unions are also part of this. These should also be investigated.”
He also criticized leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who accused the prosecutors of acting as an instrument of revenge for the government when warrants were issued for the main actors of the Feb. 28 coup. Birdal said that if those who staged Turkey’s earlier coups had been brought to justice, later interventions including Feb. 28 would not have happened. “If Turkey had confronted the coups of 1960, 1971 and 1980, Feb. 28 and the April 27 [2007] memorandum wouldn’t have happened.”
Birdal said: “Finally they have detained the actors of [Feb. 28]. But they were taken in accordance with the rules of the European Court of Human Rights [ECtHR]. They weren’t picked up at from their homes at 5 a.m. like before. It is important that [Feb. 28] be discussed. That this is on the agenda now.” “
Source : Sunday’s Zaman
