Turkish Court Convicts Ex Army Chief

In Turkey headlines have been made involving the conviction of Ex Military Chief and scores of other people including Journalists and Politicians for plotting to overthrow the Democratic Government of Islamist party. In total 250 people faced verdicts in the said case, out of which 19 defendants including Ex Army Chief Basbug were sentenced to life imprisonment while 64 defendants faced imprisonment sentences ranging from 1 to 45 years. Also Turkish Court acquitted 21 people of charges against them.

Defendants were accused by the prosecution of preparing way for a military coup via High profile terrorist attacks under the cover of an organization called Ergenekon. Other accusations levelled included plotting to kill the now Prime Minister Erdogan, a noble laureate Orhan Pamuk and other high profile targets.

Convicted Ex Military Chief

The most prominent Defendant in the case, ilker basbug who was the army chief between 2008-10 in turkey was convicted for the internet sites that were posed as hostile towards the Government. The second most prominent figure was Brigadier General Veli Kucuk who has been sentenced to double life on charges that he ran Death Squads in South East parts of turkey; other then that two parliamentarians, that is to say a university founder and Surgeon Mehmet Haberal and a Journalist Mustafa Balbay were sentenced to imprisonment of 12 and 34 years respectively. Also another well known figure, previous head of higher education council was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Prime Minister Erdogan with Ex Military Chief 

There are many people who are in favour of the convictions while there are also many others who believe otherwise. Both have their reasons, many have staged protest against the convictions stating it was highly unfair. After the Convictions the whole country has been divided into two factions, one is those ultra nationalists who are accused of being behind the scenes force and those secularists who believe that Islamist Government is trying to undermine the secularism in the country.