33 of the Day

Turkish Court Convicts 330 From Military in Coup Case

By SEBNEM ARSU
ISTANBUL — A Turkish court convicted 330 military officers, including three former top commanders, and sentenced them to prison terms of as long as 20 years on Friday after a trial in which they were accused of a wide-ranging plot to overthrow the government nearly a decade ago. Thirty-four were acquitted.
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The convictions and sentences, reported by the Turkish news media, signaled completion of the first trial in a civilian court of defendants in a coup plot known as Sledgehammer, said to have been masterminded as part of a 2003 military exercise. The prosecution of the case was widely regarded as a test of the democratically elected government’s power over the formerly dominant Turkish military, which has been responsible for four coups since 1960.

Prosecutors have said the Sledgehammer coup plotters had conspired in a master plan to bomb mosques and set off a military conflict with Greece in an effort to stir unrest and overthrow the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose Justice and Development Party has roots in an Islamist movement. The military has historically regarded itself as the guardian of the secular political system in Turkey, which has a Muslim majority.

Emphasis added. Of course, that kind of false-flag action could NEVER happen here....