Top coup suspect says he followed orders of Turkish Chief of General Staff Akar
One of the top suspects in the key case on the July 2016 coup attempt, former Major General Mehmet Dişli, has said he was following the orders of Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar during events at the Akıncı Air Base, considered to be the command center of the coup.
"The coup plot was underway and [Akar] heard about it from me. Maybe I was the first person who uttered those words. I did not play an intermediary role. There was nobody other than the general in the room. I was not just the secretariat to the general, I can say that I worked as a one-man staff," Dişli told the Ankara 4th Criminal Court on Aug. 14.
The court hosted the cross examination of Dişli at the 10th hearing of the case. A brother of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker Şaban Dişli, Mehmet Dişli is accused of holding Akar at gunpoint, playing an intermediary role between coup plotters and Akar in a bid to persuade the chief of general staff to sign the coup declaration and to read it out to the public.
As he escorted Akar to the Akıncı Air Base from General Staff Headquarters and then to the Çankaya Palace on the night of the coup attempt, Dişli claimed that he was "in the unity of action with Akar, transferring the orders of the general."
He said that he and the top suspect of the case Akın Öztürk, came to the base following Akar's orders, and Öztürk stayed at the base "as part of the plan."
The court head, Judge Selfet Giray, asked Dişli about a statement claiming that Akar told Dişli to "calm down" as "all necessary measures have been taken."
"I told the general that the planes had taken off and five brigades were approaching. I believe the general meant that they had blocked the air space and had taken precautions. I...
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