Opposition: Military coup claims in Turkey are nonsense

The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party on Tuesday dismissed as “nonsense” claims that a controversial letter to the government signed by 104 retired naval admirals over the weekend had intended to overthrow the government, Anadolu Agency reported.

“Where do retirees [admirals] stage military coups in the world?” asked Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), adding that critics of the letter that said the former admirals sought to depose the government “lost their sense.”

“The Turkish Republic has never seen and heard so much nonsense,” Kilicdaroglu told his party’s parliamentary group, accusing the government of being unable to run the country.

“They need to get off this nation’s back. This nation isn’t duped by any of these [coup] claims,” he said.

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On Sunday, the ex-admirals posted a statement online urging against actions that could make the 1936 Montreux Convention the subject of debate. Prosecutors in the capital Ankara subsequently launched an investigation into the statement’s signatories.

The controversial statement also denounced alleged “efforts” to show the Turkish Armed Forces and Naval Forces as departing from the path laid down by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

It also warned that Turkey could face “dangerous … events, risks, and threats to its survival, something which we know from our history.”