20 Dec 2022; MEMO: A Turkish court has today acquitted 103 retired admirals who were accused last year of agitating for a "coup" and then arrested after signing an open letter criticising government policies, Anadolu has reported. Charged with "crimes against the security of the state and the constitutional order", the admirals were acquitted over a year after their arrest.
The open letter they wrote and published on 3 April 2021 was addressed to the Turkish nation. The signatories expressed concern over a variety of plans and policies concerning matters related to government and defence.
The targets of their criticism included the plan to construct an artificial waterway – the controversial Istanbul Canal – which Ankara intends to open as an alternative to the congested Bosphorus. The admirals viewed this as a plan to overturn the 1936 Montreux Convention, which enshrines Turkiye's right to control maritime traffic through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, both of which are international waterways even though the former runs through the centre of Istanbul and the latter is clearly within Turkish territorial waters.
They also said that the Turkish army should stick to the republic's founding principles and "the contemporary route" drawn by its founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. This was a reference to the secular principles upon which Turkiye is built, and which the Turkish military has been guarding and enforcing for the past century.
"Otherwise, the Republic of Turkiye could face the risk and threat of events [fraught with] crisis and the greatest of dangers to its existence, the examples of which are seen in history," the signatories warned.
The remarks were reportedly prompted by the leaked images of a serving admiral who appeared to visit an Islamic religious order's compound while wearing a turban and a robe over his uniform.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the time condemned the letter, accusing the admirals of attempting to agitate a "coup" against the Turkish government. Prosecutors have since sought a prison sentence of up to 12 years for each one of them, although they were released pending their trial.
Their acquittal by the court in Ankara, however, was due to there being no legal elements of a criminal offence found.
