It is an intervention in public life that does not happen in Turkey.
Ten former admirals were arrested on Monday April 5 for having criticized with other former officers the project of a new canal in Istanbul dear to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a country where the slightest incursion of the military into politics awakens the specter of past coups.
According to the Ankara Attorney General's Office, the ten retired admirals have been taken into custody.
They are among the 104 signatories of an open letter warning against the threat that the "Istanbul Canal" project, carried by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, could represent, for a treaty which guarantees free passage through the Strait of Bosphorus.
Four other former officers were also the subject of arrest warrants but were not arrested due to their age.
They were ordered to report to Ankara police within the next three days to give evidence.
An investigation has been opened against the retired military for "assembly aimed at committing a crime against state security and constitutional order", according to the prosecutor's office.
Among the detainees is Rear Admiral Cem Gürdeniz, the "father" of the controversial "blue homeland" doctrine providing for the establishment of Turkish sovereignty over large swathes of the eastern Mediterranean.
The Turkish authorities are basing themselves on the doctrine of Cem Gürdeniz to justify their maritime ambitions at the origin of the tensions between Turkey and Greece.
Coup attempt in 2016
Senior Turkish officials condemned the open letter signed by the retired admirals, saying its tone resembled that of a "coup".
"There is a difference between expressing your ideas and making a statement in the tone of a coup", denounced the Speaker of Parliament, Mustafa Sentop on Sunday.
"We are going to fight against this obscure mentality. There is no power above that of the will of the nation," Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül reacted on Monday.
The intervention of the military in politics remains a sensitive subject in Turkey where the army, defining itself as the guarantor of secularism, carried out three coups d'état between 1960 and 1980 and has long had a decisive influence on governments.
After carrying out reforms that considerably reduced the weight of the military, the Turkish head of state survived in July 2016 an attempted coup led by factious soldiers, which he blamed on supporters of the preacher Fethullah Gülen , based in the United States.
The letter from the former admirals is considered the most significant military intervention in politics since then.
"Crazy projects"
Turkey's approval last month of plans to develop a navigation canal in Istanbul comparable to those in Panama or Suez opened the debate on the Montreux Convention.
"Canal Istanbul" is the most ambitious of what President Erdogan calls his "crazy projects", which have seen him transform Turkey's infrastructure with new airports, bridges, roads and tunnels during his 18 years at the helm. power.
The government argues that this canal would provide Istanbul with a new center of attraction in addition to relieving the Bosporus, one of the most congested straits in the world.
But opponents say that in addition to its impact on the environment, the project could compromise the Montreux Convention, dating from 1936, which guarantees the free passage of civilian ships in the straits of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, both in peacetime. that of war.
In their open letter, the 104 retired admirals said it was "worrying" to open a debate on the Montreux Treaty, saying it is an agreement that "best protects Turkish interests ".
"Not only those who signed, but also those who encourage them, will be held accountable in court," Fahrettin Altun, President Erdogan's communications chief, said on Twitter on Sunday.
The mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, of the opposition CHP party, is also a staunch opponent of the Canal Istanbul project for financial and environmental reasons.
An administrative investigation was opened in November against him for having displayed posters across the city against the construction of this seaway.
With AFP
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