Another series of police operations was carried out in four major Turkish cities on Monday (5 April) in the scope of the so-called "Sledgehammer coup plan". 20 people were arrested, among them active military soldiers.

According to the Turkish news site Ntvmnsbc.com, searches were conducted in 20 places in Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir and Çanakkale. Senior Rear Admiral Tuncay Çakan from the Istanbul Gülhane Military Medical Academy (GATA) was among the people arrested.

The 'Sledgehammer' coup plan was plotted by a group of people within the armed forces in 2002/03. It was aimed at creating disorder in the country by bombings of mosques, crashing a Turkish jet plane and warplanes flying over the parliament, which should eventually lead to martial law and a coup.

One arrest, one release...

After having previously released 21 active military officers, the Istanbul 12^th High Criminal Court decided to arrest some of them yet again.

Three days prior to the operations, Judge Oktay Kuban from the Istanbul 12^th High Criminal Court had accepted an appeal against the detention of the defendants and released 19 of them pending trial, including former 1^st Army Commander retired General Çetin Doğan.

19 people released, Colonel Köylü detained

Among the people lately released were Major Generals Bekir Memiş and İhsan Balabanlı, Senior Rear Admiral Semih Çetin, Lieutenant Colonels Hanifi Yıldırım, Ali Rıza Sözen and Levent Çehreli, Colonels Mustafa Önsel, Abdullah Zafer Arısoy, Recep Yıldız and Yüksel Gürcan, Military Officer Musa Fariz, retired General Çetin Doğan, retired Major General İzzet Ocak, retired Brigadier General Süha Tanyeri, retired Colonels Ümit Özcan, Suat Aytın, Kubilay Aktaş and Bülent Tunçay and retired Lieutenant General Engin Alan.

Colonel Cengiz Köylü, detained defendant of the second Ergenekon case, was additionally decided to be taken into detention in the scope of the investigation into the 'Sledgehammer' coup plan.  (EÖ/VK)