Ankara, May 29: Turkish prosecutors have summoned eight more active-duty officers for interrogation on suspicion of involvement in a plot to overthrow the government in 2003.
The eight, among them five generals, two colonels and an admiral, were called into an Istanbul prosecutor’s office on Friday, Reuters reported on Saturday.
The most senior officer among those questioned by prosecutors was General Bilgin Balanli, who is a commander of the military academies.
The latest interrogations come on the heels of a new seizure of documents from the home of a retired colonel.
More than 160 officers, including former air force and navy chiefs and at least 30 active generals and admirals, have been charged in connection with the coup plot against the popular government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The case is viewed as a major judicial challenge against the influential Turkish military, a pro-secular establishment that has so far toppled four elected governments since 1960.
The latest coup plot, dubbed Operation Sledgehammer, was allegedly discussed at Istanbul base of the First Army in 2003, shortly after Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party was elected into office.
Meanwhile, opinion polls indicate that Erdogan’s ruling party is set to win a third consecutive term in the next general elections, scheduled for June 12.
Erdogan, whose government is credited with bringing a period of unprecedented prosperity, aims to introduce a new constitution that would replace the one drafted under the military’s dominant rule following a 1980 coup.
——–Agencies