ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Turkish authorities arrested 10 former admirals on Monday after a group of more than 100 retired Navy officers issued a statement that government officials linked to the history of Turkish military coups.
The 10 retired admirals were detained as part of an investigation, launched by the chief prosecutor in Ankara on Sunday, on suspicions that they had reached “an agreement with the aim of committing a crime against state security and constitutional order” , Turkey’s state agency Anadolu reported.
Four other people were not detained because of their advanced ages, but were asked to report to the authorities within three days, Anadolu said.
A total of 103 retired admirals signed the statement declaring their commitment to an international treaty that regulates navigation through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, which link the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea. The 14 suspects allegedly organized the statement.
The statement was issued amid a debate over whether Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who pulled Turkey out of an international convention to protect women last month, could also pull the country out of the 1936 Treaty of Montreux, which regulates the passage through the strait, and other international treaties.
Erdogan’s plan to build an alternative waterway north of Istanbul that bypasses the Bosphorus also sparked a debate about the Montreux treaty.
“The fact that the withdrawal of the Montreux Convention was open to debate as part of the negotiations on the Istanbul Channel and the authority to withdraw from international treaties has been met with concern,” said the retired admirals in a statement released late Saturday.
The statement generated strong condemnation on the part of the ruling party and government officials who drew a parallel with statements that accompanied previous military takeovers in Turkey.
Turkey suffered coups in 1960, 1971 and 1980, and military intervention in 1997 caused the resignation of a coalition government led by Islamists. In 2016, a failed coup resulted in more than 250 deaths.
Anadolu reported that the detainees include Cem Gurdeniz, the name behind Turkey’s controversial “Blue Motherland” doctrine, which claims vast sections of the Mediterranean and Aegean and their deposits of submarine energy. The concept is at odds with the claims of Greece and Cyprus in the region.
The suspects were detained at their homes in Ankara, Istanbul and Kocaeli, and were to be questioned by the prosecutor’s office in the capital.