ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Turkish authorities detained 10 former admirals on Monday after a group of over 100 retired top naval officers issued a statement that government officials were linked to Turkey’s history of military coups.
The 10 retired admirals were detained as part of an investigation launched by the chief prosecutor in Ankara on Sunday for suspicions that they “had reached an agreement with the aim of committing a crime against the security of the state and constitutional order.” The state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Four others were not detained because of their advanced age, but were asked to report to authorities within three days, Anadolu reported.
A total of 103 retired admirals signed the statement declaring their commitment to an international treaty governing navigation through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, which link the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. The 14 suspects would have organized the report.
The statement was issued amid a debate as to whether Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who last month withdrew Turkey from an international convention to protect women, could also withdraw the country from the 1936 Montreux Convention, which passage through the strait, and other international treaties.
Erdogan’s plan to construct an alternative waterway north of Istanbul that would bypass the Bosphorus also sparked a debate over the Montreux treaty.
“The fact that the withdrawal from the Montreux Convention was called into question as part of the talks on Canal Istanbul and the power to withdraw from international treaties was met with concern,” the retired admirals said in a statement late Saturday. was released.
The statement sparked strong condemnation by the ruling party and government officials who drew a parallel with statements that accompanied previous military takeovers in Turkey.
Turkey experienced coups d’état in 1960, 1971 and 1980, and a military intervention in 1997 caused the resignation of an Islamist-led coalition government. In 2016, a failed coup d’etat resulted in more than 250 deaths.
Anadolu reported that among those arrested is Cem Gurdeniz, the name behind Turkey’s controversial “Blue Homeland” doctrine, which lays claim to vast expanses of the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea and its unwanted energy supplies. The concept is at odds with claims made by Greece and Cyprus in the region.
The suspects were held in their homes in Ankara, Istanbul and Kocaeli, and were to be questioned by the capital’s chief prosecutor.