Turkey still awaits to confront with generals of the coup in Sep 12, 1980

The result of the coup is horrible. Around 650,000 people were detained, 230,000 people trialed, 50 were executed, 14,000 lost their citizenship, all political parties, unions and foundations were closed, 171 were killed under custody, hundreds of thousands people were tortured, thousands are still missing.

The military handed the power back to civilians in 1983.

The shadow of the coup still casts over the political and social lives. The political and sociological consequences shaped the Turkish nation for generations and continue to do.

The clashes between leftist and right wing political groups in the 1970s had brought Turkey to the brink of civil war. Thousands of people were killed in the clashes between the leftist bloc that included communists, social democrats and socialists, and the right wingers consisting of hardline nationalists.

New evidences emerged decades after the coup, showing many assassinations from both groups in late 1970s were carried out by same weapons.

A member of the U.S. National Security Council later said, amid the coup the then President Jimmy Carter was informed by an aide who said "Our boys have done it."

The coup, that took place during the peak of the Cold War, dealt the real blow to leftist wing of Turkey.

Academics and experts blame the coup for the rise of Islamization in the country in the last three decades, saying the junta completely suppressed the left wing while supported political Islam in order to prevent the strengthening of a political movement close to the Soviet Union. 

JUDGING GENERALS?

The real responsibles of these terrible events still enjoy immunity based on a 26-year-old “temporary” constitutional article.

Provisional Article 15 of the constitution stipulates that no allegation of criminal, financial or legal responsibility can be made, nor can an application be filed with a court for this purpose in respect of any decisions or measures whatsoever taken by the Council of National Security, formed by the generals after the coup d'etat.

Although more than one third of the constitution prepared by the military junta has been amended, no government dared to pave the way for prosecution of the generals.

The public's demand to judge the coup makers has increased. Istanbul is going to host a meeting Sunday, to commemorate the 28th anniversary of the coup, with the title “From Sept. 12 to Ergenekon, Break Up The Counter Guerrilla, Prosecute The Coup Makers.”

A symbolic court will be held in Istanbul's Bilgi University Friday to prosecute the coup makers. Demonstrations will be held in three big provinces, Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir.