The former deputy chief of intelligence of the Air Force Command whose alleged role in a coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016 led to his arrest and subsequent life imprisonment submitted a written statement to a court on July 10, revealing previously undisclosed details about the abortive putsch.
According to the statement, an air force commander who disagreed with launching an airstrike on Syria’s capital of Damascus in 2015 was punished by being portrayed as the leader of the coup attempt, which many believe was a false flag operation organized by Turkish intelligence. Following the abortive putsch, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan built an authoritarian regime that has allowed him to completely control the judiciary and armed forces thanks to the purge of more than 150,000 civil servants and military officers.
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Former brigadier general Gökhan Şahin Sönmezateş included his testimony in the statement in which he asserts that President Erdogan’s government planned an airstrike on Damascus between 2013 and 2015. Sönmezateş labeled the plan as irrational and absurd, mentioning that the plan was discussed during a meeting at the General Staff and that the air force opposed it. He added that the air force argued that Russian air defense systems were well-positioned in Syria and that Turkish jets would incur heavy losses.
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