Shifting attitudes

A Turkish court Tuesday reportedly accepted the indictment of retired generals Kenan Evren and Tahsin Sahinkaya, the two surviving military leaders allegedly involved in the 1980 coup that set up Ankara's military government.

The state-run Anatolia news agency said the court was trying 94-year-old Evren, who served as president of Turkey in the 1980s, and 87-year-old Sahinkaya, head of the country's air force, for "crimes against the state."

The indictment went on to say that the two men were alleged to have "wholly or partly overthrown the Turkish constitution and parliament" in their role in the September 12, 1980 military coup that continues to divide public opinion in Turkey.

Mixed reaction

At Taksim square in the center of Istanbul, scene of a massacre in the run-up to the coup, reactions to the indictments were mixed.

One man told Deutsche Welle that the generals "had organized a coup and that thousands of people had been tortured and killed as a result. This is why they must be prosecuted."

Others insisted, however, that Evren and Sahinkaya weren't guilty of the charges leveled against them, that they still "had faith" in their military leaders.

The generals seized power after years of political unrest, which had claimed hundreds of lives. Prosecutors now say much of that unrest was incited by the army itself as an excuse to take power under the pretext of restoring order.

The years of military rule saw 50 people executed and hundreds of thousands more detained - many of whom were tortured. One of them was Defne Sandalye, who told Deutsche Welle his story.

"I was arrested twice after the coup," Sandalye said. "I spent most of my time at the interrogation center, which was also de facto the torture center. At first, I was there for a month and then released. But then five months later I was arrested again and spent three and half months in the torture center."

Taboos diminished

A recent Turkish soap opera, which was broadcast amid a public debate of the indictments, featured a main character who was loosely based on Sandalye. To him, this suggested that Turkey was finally facing up to its dark years of military rule.

"And it's very important to do this, because Turkish people are suffering from historical amnesia and they are not very willing or able to facing their past," Sandalye said. "For decades nobody questioned what the army was capable of and what it had been doing."

Turkey's era of military rule is now coming under scrutiny. Last year an international film festival in Istanbul focused on military rule both in Turkey and around the world. The festival was supported by the Culture Ministry.

Moreover, throughout its decade of rule the Islamist-rooted AK Party has sought to diminish the influence of the politically meddlesome army. In 2010 constitutional reforms were passed in a referendum that lifted the 1980 coup leaders' immunity.

Ulterior motives?

But the timing of the indictments against the coup leaders has raised some questions.

Political columnist Kadri Gurcel of the Turkish newspaper Milliyet said "the two should no doubt be prosecuted, because they committed a crime. But I see this one as a purely tactical step to divert the discussion which will also change the agenda."

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has been facing criticism over its human rights record, most recently in an EU report released on Tuesday that highlighted Turkish failure to uphold people's rights as well as judicial independence.

Ending the army's role in politics, however, is one of the government's signature achievements when it comes to human rights.

Regardless of what the motivations behind the fresh indictments of the coup leaders really were, said political scientist Cengiz Aktar of Bahcesehir University, it's an important step for Turkish democracy.

"It's symbolic," Aktar told Deutsche Welle. "We must not forget that these men organized and chaired the junta. And they were having a beautiful life in the Turkish Rivera until now. I think it's high time for them to pay for their crimes.

"The 1980 coup did a great deal of damage to democratic life in this country and we are still living with the consequences of this," Aktar added.

Public prosecutors have sought life imprisonment for the coup leaders.

For the many victims of Turkey's military rule, however, it's not necessarily the length of any sentence that is important. It's rather the hope that they could finally see the generals held to account in a court of law - something that was unthinkable only a few years ago.

Author: Dorian Jones, Istanbul / gb
Editor: Nancy Isenson