Prosecutors reveal junta behind Turkey’s coup attempt
The joint indictment submitted to an Ankara court on March 3 on the July 2016 coup attempt has identified a 38-member junta named “Peace in the Nation Council” as being among 221 suspected coup plotters led by Fethullah Gülen, head of what the government and the indictment refer to as the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ). The indictment demands 2,988 life sentences for each of the soldiers, the highest ever sentence sought for suspects in Turkish history. The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office completed the investigation into events at the Chief of General Staff headquarters during the July 15 coup attempt, where Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar and a number of high-ranking soldiers were held captive by coup plotters and then brought to the Akıncı Air Base in rural Ankara, the main location from which the coup activities were coordinated.