Turkey opens in the historic trial of the generals coup of 1980

More than six hundred thousand prisoners . Two hundred fifty thousand military trials. One hundred death sentences , half-carried, three hundred deaths in custody, tortured and disappeared thousands of … That’s the toll of the 1980 military coup in Turkey, that those responsible are being processed now, and whose trial started Wednesday.

In a crowded room, whose door was jammed dozens of people, the 12th High Criminal Court of Ankara has begun this morning to hear the charges against retired Gen. Kenan Evren , 94, leader of the former top military coup, and the former commander of the Air Force Tahsin Sahinkaya , 86 years old.

At the time of the coup, many Turks greeted him as the event that would bring stability to the country . Turkey went through a phase of political gangsterism, which the militia of all persuasions had shootouts in the streets of major cities, and the number of armed militants, both left and right, was closer to 200,000. "Destructive and separatist forces have put the lives and property of citizens at risk, promoting perverted ideologies will react and that led us to the brink of civil war and division, "said the military leadership after the coup.

But the Turks soon discovered that the peculiar sense of justice involved Evren hang two for every two right-wing communists, and vice versa . Repression reached all political sectors, both leftist and Islamist, the ultra-right "Grey Wolves" or even the former prime minister Süleyman Demirel and Bülent Ecevit , who were imprisoned.

Popular Support
So no wonder the popular support that this trial has aroused. More than 500 individual allegations have appeared in person in the process, including eight political parties and the Turkish Parliament itself. The defendants have not attended the session, due to his advanced age, have applied answer questions via video-JUDGMENT, and the prosecution asked for them life imprisonment , the maximum penalty in existing Turkish legislation.

This trial has been possible only after the constitutional reform of 2010, approved by referendum, which removed the items that granted impunity to the coup , written by themselves. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is drafting a new constitution later this year, replacing the current, which, although amended, was imposed by the leadership coup in 1982.