Ruling AKP lawmakers press charges against former top commander

Six lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have filed criminal complaints against former Chief of General Staff İlker Başbuğ after he said FETÖ, the group behind the 2016 defeated coup attempt, had played a significant role in the adoption of laws in parliament that resulted in several military personnel to serve jail time over a decade ago.

Speaking to reporters on Feb. 7, an AKP deputy for the Central Anatolian Kayseri province, Mustafa Elitaş, said that he and five other deputies of his party will file a criminal complaint against Başbuğ in the afternoon.

Along with Elitaş, Bekir Bozdağ, Ahmet Aydın, Yahya Doğan, Mehmet Ceylan and Abdurrahmen Müfit Yetkin will file the complaints on the ground that the former top soldier "accused [them] of being the FETÖ's political establishment."

"Our lawyers will file criminal complaints against İlker Başbuğ and Dursun Çiçek. We lodge the complaint on grounds of defamation and slander," Elitaş said.

He added that the lawmakers are pressing charges against Çiçek because he said "FETÖ's political leg has been found."

The lawmakers' move came after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called them on to file lawsuits against Başbuğ.

Başbuğ, who had served as the chief of general staff between 2008 and 2010, suggested that a law amendment that paved the way for the special authorized courts to prosecute military personnel had been adopted in 20019 "at the hands of FETÖ."

Başbuğ said these courts that were under the control of FETÖ had been used to conduct a series of plots against the army's top personnel, including himself, adding that had the law not been passed FETÖ's structure within the army would be revealed and the coup attempt of July 15, 2016 would have...